The Blue Hour Awakens
by seldomknown3
Summary: This is a sequel to my other fanfiction, A Step Into the Twilight, please read that first. Charity and Nessa are taken away again from her new home for a new adventure, and something about a Keyblade War arises. KxS, RxN, OCxR, OCxOC, etc.
1. Alive With the Beating Of Young Hearts

CHAPTER I:

Alive With the Beating of Young Hearts

(NOTE)

So, here's the sequel to my first fanfiction, A Step Into the Twilight. If you haven't read it yet, go read it, because this fanfiction will make absolutely no sense if you haven't. For those of you who are reading this after finishing my first one, here it is! I hope you like it! Read and review, please. :3

DISCLAIMER:

I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy or any of the sort, simply my original characters. Hell, I don't even own one of them at the end. That one belongs to Igor Lollipop and her fanfictions of The Two-Sided Heart and A Nobody's War. Read them. They rock.

(/NOTE)

Medium-length auburn hair flew behind a teenage girl as she sat on the train in the Tram Common. She would often jump the top of the train nowadays just to feel the wind in her face and think about life. Life to her was many things; school, friends, the future, and the past. She hugged her legs to her chest and rested her head on her knees, the soft yet harsh denim fabric rubbing on her cheek.

"Char!" came a familiar voice. Jerking her head back upwards, she looked down from the train. Running by the side of the train, laughing, were Hayner, Pence, Olette, and her best friend in the world, Nessa. Suddenly feeling a bit more alive, she sprang off of the top of the train, skillfully landing like a cat on the pavement.

"Hey!" she exclaimed happily, pushing a lock of hair out of her face to reveal dark cocoa brown eyes. They almost looked golden in the sunset light they were under.

"Guess who's birthday is tomorrow." Hayner said, giving her a toothy smile. Charity laughed, and lightly punched him in the shoulder.

"I know, I know." she laughed slightly, "Sixteen already." Riku came to mind as she said this; last year, he was sixteen. She was originally unnerved by his age and demeanor, but that changed quickly when they got to know each other. Charity was saddened to see that his face was slowly becoming foggier in her mind.

Pence pulled out five sea salt ice creams, one of each everyone took. "Do you just carry these around with you?" Olette joked to him.

"What?" he asked, already with a mouthful of salty ice cream.

Charity laughed, and licked hers. "So it's been a little over a year already, huh?" she asked. At one point, she was happy, but at another, she wondered how it would feel if her keyblade would just materialize in her hand one more time.

"Shocked me, too." Nessa mumbled, biting off a huge chunk of her ice cream; her head quickly paid for it.

"Hey, where's Odol?" asked Charity, looking over at Pence. Pence and Odol seemed to get along the best out of the group they were in.

Pence shrugged, "He said that he was going to the Sandlot for one reason or another."

As they all licked their ice cream, they looked at each other. "Shit!" three of them yelled, while the others just followed. Hayner jumped on a skateboard, and only Olette and Charity seemed to be able to keep up properly.

"Thought so." Charity chimed, smoothing her hair out of her face. Seifer, Rei, Fuu, and Vivi were all in the sandlot, looking at them accusingly. Seifer had never gotten over the fact that the fact that Fuu had been taken away from them a year ago was not Charity's fault, and he held a grudge against Charity and Nessa ever since.

"Seifer, where's Odol?" asked Charity, refusing to be anything less than the unspoken leader once confronted by Seifer.

"I think some creepy black creature took him into the mansion." he taunted them, pointing a club at Charity, who was now only inches away from Seifer.

"Not funny." Charity growled.

"I'm not afraid to hit a girl, you know." Seifer stated, pulling out his club and pointing it at Charity's face.

"Neither am I." Charity said, mimicking him.

"He's not a girl, y'know." Rei said dumbly, obviously not getting the joke.

"You're quite stupid, aren't you?" questioned Charity.

"Pence! Olette! Guys!" Odol's voice pierced the air. In response to this, Charity lowered her club and smiled at Odol, who was running up towards them. Odol was a boy not much taller than Charity with tanned skin and dark, spiky hair. He usually looked clean cut and rough all at the same time, but this time he just looked smelly.

"What happened to you?" Olette inquired, while pulling a banana peel off of his head. He leaned in to kiss her, but she moved out of the way, "No way. Not until you take a shower."

"What happened?" Pence repeated.

"They threw me in the dumpster." Odol said, just a bit too cheerful for his own good.

"Why didn't you just step out?" Charity posed, raising an eyebrow.

"We locked it, y'know!" Rei said happily, earning an elbow in the side from Seifer.

"If I had the keyblade," Odol muttered, knocking a tuna can off of his shoulder, "Anyway, where's my ice cream?" he asked.

"I ate it." Pence mentioned happily. **Author's Note: Dx**

Ignoring Seifer's gang for a while, Odol whispered something to the group, "I could have sworn while I was getting out of there that I saw Riku."

Charity's eyes widened, and she suddenly looked at Odol angrily, "That's not funny." she said, finally finishing the last of her ice cream as Hayner led them over to the Usual Spot.

"I'm not joking!" sheepishly Odol added, "I thought I saw Riku."

"You mean Sephiroth's bastard child?" asked Pence.

"_What_?" laughed Hayner.

"Just a joke." he finished, blushing.

xxxxx

"Sorry for making you feel bad earlier." Odol shrugged, sitting in a small armchair in The Usual Spot. Thankfully, he had already gone home and taken a quick shower, so he wasn't stinking up the place too terribly. Charity shrugged.

"I guess I overreacted. It's just that I haven't seen him in a while, and..." Deciding to drop the subject, she sighed and licked her ice cream, waiting for somebody else to say something.

"You know what? We've still got two hours left in the day, and I've still got my birthday munny from all of you guys and what I earned working. Let's go to the beach." she suggested.

They all smiled at this, and each one started going on loudly about what they were going to do and what they were going to bring. Charity smiled.

"I can't think of a better way to spend my last day as fifteen." Charity reassured her. Nessa smiled and gave her the thumbs-up; she always seemed to know a way to make Charity feel better.

xxxxx

"It's so warm out!" Charity told herself. She was surprised that Exie wasn't at all reacting towards this; ever since she saw the beach for the first time when they all waited at Destiny Islands for Hollow Bastion to come back on the radar, she had a passion for living on a sunny island, or at least by a lake.

Olette and Odol were kissing, or something they didn't want to ask about, on the sand ahead of them, whereas Charity and Nessa were sunbathing while talking to Hayner and Pence.

"I swear, she couldn't have done any better than Odol?" asked Hayner, angrily.

Pence just laughed.

"What?" he asked Pence impatiently.

"Nothing." Pence responded, eating a giant pretzel. **Author's Note: Yes, I realize I make him eat very, very often. I find it fun. :3**

"You're jeeeaaaaloooouuusss, aren't you?" Nessa dragged, sitting up and laying her head on his shoulder.

"I'm not jealous!" Hayner retaliated, folding his arms.

"I can fix that," Nessa cooed, putting a hand on his chest. Charity loved these games that she played with Hayner whenever he showed signs of jealousy. His face would always turn really red and he would tell Nessa to stop, but he wouldn't move at all.

"This is enough of a birthday gift, I've decided!" Charity laughed, as she counted how many different shades of red Hayner's face could turn, before Nessa pulled her hand back to push the bangs out of her face. It had been ages since she got a decent haircut.

Suddenly, a scream came from over where Odol and Olette were sitting. Odol stood up promptly, and looked around. It was hard to tell, but Charity could have sworn that he had a keyblade in his hands.

Odol ran over to Nessa and Charity, and shouted, "I told you something was going on!"

"What?" asked Charity.

"There was a Heartless over there!" he pressed, pointing over by Olette, who just lowered her sunglasses far enough to try and see what was going on.

"Then show me your keyblade." Charity told him. **Author's Note: If you pay really close attention, that can become a sexual innuendo.**

Odol held out his hand, determined for his Midday Descending to appear in his hands, but no such luck occurred.

"You've been in the sun for too long." Nessa murmured, shifting her head to fall on Charity's shoulder.

"I swear, I haven't," Odol said, for once with a very serious look on his face, "I just saw a Shadow Heartless and it attacked my foot. Midday Descending appeared! But then the Heartless disappeared, and I ran over here to tell you.

"Odol, you're crazy." Olette called back, "I didn't see anything."

"Maybe it's time we go home," suggested Nessa, "I'm tired and I seriously think that the sun is somehow getting past his skin and burning his brain.

xxxxx

Charity awoke from her sleep at her and Nessa's house. Since her world had been destroyed a year beforehand, she and Nessa had moved into their own, small, created-by-Merlin house. Sometimes it was hard for them to make it by, but it was a home nonetheless.

"What?" Charity asked herself. "I must be hearing things..." Softly, she put her fingers to her lips and remembered Riku's and her last kiss. She never thought that she saw such a sad, yet determined smile out of him. It's not like she could remember very well what he looked like, anyway, but surely, if she was presented with his face she would know in an instant.

Putting her hands behind her head, she laid back down on her bed on top of her covers. Twilight Town was always so warm that she wondered why she even used them. Yawning, she closed her eyes.

"Don't worry," a familiar voice cooed from not too far away, "You're not crazy yet." The voice was harsh, yet smooth, and familiar, but oh-so distant, as if from a reoccurring dream.

Charity sprang up and flipped around, and saw a face outside the window. The boy had an angular face with soft skin, long, silvery blue hair, and pale seafoam green eyes. Just his look was enough to make Charity gasp out of remembrance; Riku's head was resting on his arms, which were folded across the windowpane. Happily, although still in her pajamas, she ran to the window and held Riku's arms.

"Riku, it's you. It's... seriously you." she said softly, and felt Riku's warm breath chuckle in her ear. It was strange to be holding a real person when she had only ever dreamed about it for a little over a year now. "I'm not dreaming, right?" she asked, in a very normal voice.

"Charity," he said, smiling giddily, yet taking her by the shoulders, "I was sent here to get you and Odol."

Charity laughed a little, and looked at him oddly, "Why? What's happening?" she asked, a bit more serious now.

"A Keyblade War is going on." Riku told her as calmly as he could manage.

"A Keyblade War?" asked Charity. None of this made sense, how could their be a war with keyblades?

"There's not much time to explain right now," Riku tried to tell her, but looked around, "but Nessa can't come."

Charity's eyes widened even further, black now that there was no light shining on them. "What do you mean she can't come?"

"It's a _keyblade_ war," Riku pressed, "It really wasn't my decision, it was the King's. But for her own safety, she can't come."

"But the King also called all the keyblade wielders last year," she said, emphasizing a bit on last year as if the words would pack up and leave if she didn't, "but Nessa came anyway."

Riku smirked, "Trust me, if Nessa can find a way to come without the King knowing, which I'm sure she will, she can stay with us."

"Oh, Nessa will find a way." Charity smiled.

"Let's go get Odol." said Riku.

Something sunk in Charity's stomach; that was right, Odol had been trying to tell him that he had seen weird things all day. But how could he have seen a Heartless when the world had already been sealed.

"Riku," she asked, as he turned around while she got changed, "Did anybody unseal Twilight Town?" she asked, careful not to wake Nessa up in the next room.

"I don't think so. Not yet, anyway." he looked down, "Why?"

"Odol said that he saw a Heartless earlier." she told him.

Riku shrugged, "Sometimes stray Heartless can make it into sealed worlds. Like in Traverse Town; even when it was sealed the Heartless just kept coming. We finally managed to put up a defense system over there, too. You need any help?" he asked.

Charity laughed. "No."

xxxxx

"Odol! Odol, wake up you lazy bum!" Charity hissed through Odol's window. Thankfully, he was on the very first floor considering he lived in a ranch house.

"Whu—?" asked Odol, rubbing his eyes and looking around. He first noted Charity, "What are you doing here? It's four am," he then stopped, and rubbed his eyes harder, "Riku? Riku! I told you I saw him!" Odol explained.

Riku frowned, "I just got here at about midnight."

Odol gave an odd face, "Oh. What are you doing here?"

"I'm getting the keyblade wielders. There's a Keyblade War going on and we need your help."

"What's a Keyblade War?" Odol asked passively, stretching slightly in his bed. He had a bad habit of sleeping naked, so Charity tried not to look inside.

"I can't explain very well right now, but recently a whole new flock of kids around our age have become keyblade wielders, and some of them are going around unsealing worlds and trying to make them their own. It's not like the rest of the Keyblade Wars that have happened, and so the King doesn't know what to expect, and he sent me to go get you." Riku stared at Odol, waiting for a reaction of some kind to take place.

"I can't go." Odol decided softly.

"What do you mean?" asked Charity.

"What I mean is, we just recently got here, my family would go crazy if I left again. And I'm afraid of having to use the keyblade again... I have been since we left the mansion... because I don't want to ever try to find the darkness, or have it accidentally find me. I'm happy here with my family and Olette."

Charity forgot. She knew what it was like to have to leave a loved one for a long time, and she nodded. "I understand," she said, "Just look after Twilight Town when we're gone."

"Charity?" asked Riku.

"He shouldn't leave if he doesn't want to leave the people that he loves, right?" she asked him. Riku shook his head.

"He shouldn't. You're right."

xxxxx

Charity looked down at Twilight Town as the Gummi Ship lifted off. "Too bad I didn't get to say good-bye to anybody, but we'll probably be back here again soon." She didn't want to jump to conclusions, though, ever since her world had been totally destroyed when they left it last.

"I guess I'm still sort of shocked that Odol didn't want to come." Riku sighed as they sat down on the bench of the Gummi Ship, Charity's head immediately finding the perfect place on his shoulder.

"You know what I'm shocked about?" she asked.

"Hm?" asked Riku, looking down at her.

"That Nessa hasn't popped out and broken this up yet." Charity smiled.

"What?" asked Riku.

"Damn," came a laughing voice from under the bench in the Gummi Ship, "How did you know I was here?" she asked, jumping on top of Charity's lap.

"Honestly? I guessed." Charity laughed.

Riku shook his head, "King Mickey's not going to like this." he muttered.

Charity stuck out her tongue in front of her, "King Mickey can suck my keyblade."

xxxxx

"It's... beautiful." Charity mentioned, putting her hand to her mouth. Hollow Bastion was definitely restored, and in almost no time. It was surprising all of the damage that had been done to it the year before, but it looked ten times better.

"It better be!" came a happy voice, and a woman with long, black hair, a black t-shirt and shorts came into view from a small looking house in the corner.

At first, Charity thought it was going to be Yuffie, until she remembered. "Tifa!" she exclaimed.

"Charit— wait a second, how did Nessa get here?" she asked.

"I took the Gummi Ship!" said Nessa simply, practically jumping on Tifa.

"Charity! Nessa!" came a familiar voice, running down to them. They hugged the redhead girl known to them as Kairi; she hadn't changed except that her hair had grown. She was the same height, and her face had stayed the same.

"You aren't going to believe everything that's happened while you were gone. Riku told you about the Keyblade War, right?" she asked.

"I did, but Nessa hasn't heard." Charity told her.

They soon found themselves in the familiar atmosphere of Merlin's house. Cloud and Leon were quiet in their greetings, but Aerith was as happy as ever, and Sora didn't seem to want to stop smiling. It had only been a year, but it felt like a century.

"So what's with this Keyblade War thing you got going on?" asked Nessa, sitting down on the couch inside of Merlin's house. She was thankful to have not seen the crazy old man yet, and she was even more thankful that she didn't have to hear any of his crazy chants. The 'Hockety Pockety Wockety Wack' spell had been burned into her mind.

"Well—..." Kairi was cut off by a new prescence in the room. A boy with medium-length brown hair and a cute face walked in the room with a well-fitting black shirt and blue jeans, and fingerless gloves on his hands. His dark eyes shone like a baby's in the light, and he glanced over at Nessa.

"I can help explain." the boy offered.

**Author's Note: Well, there you have it, a bit uneventful for the first chapter, but it will get better, I promise. :3**


	2. Gotta Love It

CHAPTER II

Gotta Love It

(NOTE)

Okay, I promise this chapter will be more eventful than the last one, I promise. XDD So, disclaimer. I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters, I don't even own one of the Ocs. I do, however, own a really cool new backpack for school tomorrow. Oh yes, be jealous. ;D

(/NOTE)

"They Keyblade Wars," the brunet boy started, glancing up at everybody, "are usually just like a war themselves; side versus side. This one, on the other hand, is different. Every year, a handful of new keyblade wielders are chosen, most of which die after the first couple weeks," this earned the boy a shocked look out of Charity, "but chosen nonetheless. Every one hundred years during the blue hour of the first day of July, many keyblade wielders are chosen instead of the select few. Because of this—"

Tifa's eyes narrowed, "Quince..."

"...Because of this," the boy went on, "The natural balance of dark and light inside of the keyblade wielders is broken. The keyblades react, choosing a side of either dark or light for the wielders, and one side will try to eliminate the other in hopes to shower the world in eternal light or eternal darkness."

"Quince, don't freak them out like that, it's not as dramatic as you're making it seem." Sora warned him. Sora had changed a lot himself; his hair had grown darker, and a bit longer. He was almost Riku's height at this point, and his body was finally starting to fit his head.

"If you tell them anything less, they'll expect less." the boy mentioned, shrugging. Despite his intimidating demeanor, he seemed very carefree and outspoken. "May as well make them expect more so if it's less it'll be easier on them, right?"

"Honestly, er... Quince?" asked Charity, and he turned to her, "You're scaring me."

Quince made a small bow, and Nessa laughed.

"Nessa, you shouldn't have even come," Cloud said sternly, "This Keyblade War is going to be a lot different than the rest; a lot more dangerous. If you don't have a keyblade to defend yourself, you may as well just die on the spot."

"That was... happy." Nessa murmured.

"That's okay, Nessa, was it? You can borrow my keyblade anytime."

"Quince!" Kairi shouted at him. "Honestly, why are we letting him stay here?" asked Kairi to Sora, who shrugged.

"I don't see anything wrong with him." Sora replied back. Kairi shook her head.

"So what are the new keyblade wielders going to do 'shower the world in light and dark'?" asked Charity, the arm around Riku tensing up a little bit.

"The Dark keyblade wielders, the ones that already accepted darkness into their hearts, are unlocking all of the worlds so they can be swallowed in darkness." Leon explained. "And in response, the Light keyblade wielders are—"

"Hurdling the worlds at the sun." Quince finished, sitting down next to Nessa.

Leon just looked at him, while Nessa stared at him with open eyes.

"In a way, actually, they are." Aerith said sadly, "Not in that way, though. They're using a light spell that had been first attempted last year to blind the worlds of any and all darkness. The only problem with that is with too much exposure to light, a world can fade. Worlds need balance."

Charity looked down at her hands; her keyblade was called the Savior of Balance. Was this what her Awakening was telling her? That she had to resurrect the balance in the worlds?

"Your job, however, isn't to go seal the worlds again." said Leon.

At this, the rest of them jumped.

"We've been thinking about this a lot," Leon told them, "and we've come to realize that the Keyblade War will be a never ending cycle; the Dark wielders and the Light wielders will just keep fighting at it. What you need to do is find something for us."

Aerith continued for him, "In each world, there's a part of a new keyblade that was destroyed at the beginning of the war earlier this month. Each army is guarding it with their life, one part of the keyblade in every world. If you can get this keyblade, you need to unseal Kingdom Hearts."

Sora stood up at this, "What do you mean?!"

"It's not what you think," Tifa started, "Unsealing Kingdom Hearts with that keyblade will cause a reaction and destroy all of the dark and light biased keyblades created this year. But you have to do it before the Blue Hour on August 30th."

"The Blue Hour?" asked Charity.

"The perfect inbetween of the dark and the light when the sky outside is a deep blue. Right inbetween dark and light, kind of like your Savior of Balance."

Just the words 'Savior of Balance' triggered enough in Charity's mind for her keyblade to appear in her right hands. Even after a year she was so used to this happening suddenly, and did not jump when her hand became a couple pounds heavier.

"Why did I get the Savior of Balance?" Charity asked Aerith.

Aerith shook her head, "We don't know how the keyblade wielders are chosen. I'm sorry." she truly looked it.

"So..." Charity looked up and smiled, "I guess we're on another journey again!" Everyone in the room but Leon, Cloud and Quince cheered.

"Splendid!" came a booming voice from down the hallway. **Author's Note: Please picture Darth Vader's theme song coming on.**

"Oh no," said Nessa, "no, no, no..." she mumbled, getting out of her chair and hiding behind Quince.

"Since you all are going on such a long journey, I brought a few things for it!" Merlin shouted, as he dragged in a crate full of food and random objects. It took a while for everyone in the group to realize that Merlin was wearing a strapless, blue dress and Sora's shoes.

"Hey!" shouted Sora.

"Wait... how are we supposed to carry all _that_?" asked Charity, "And is this your clever way of telling us that we can't come back to rob meals from Aerith anymore?"

Without answering the second part of the question, Merlin pulled out his wand and a backpack out of seemingly nowhere. "Like this!" he shouted, and pointed his wand at the objects, dancing around wildly. "Higitus figitus zumbabazing, I want your attention ev'rything! We're packing to leave, come on, let's go! Books are always the first, you know! Hockety pockety, wockety wack—"

"AGAIN WITH THE HOT POCKETS?" asked Nessa, scared out of her mind.

"— Abracabra dabra nack! Shrink in size very small, we've got to save enough room for all! Higitus figitus migitus mum, pres-ti-dig-i-ton-i-um! Cicero, you belong in the 'C's', alphabetical order, please! Ali-i-ca-fez bal-a-ca-zez, malacamez meripides!"

"MERLIN!" shouted Cloud, "That's enough!" The floating objects that were now shrinking. Quince decided to use this for target practice, and whipped out two keyblades, hitting the objects in the air. It was almost as if the objects were in pain.

"Your bra's showing." Quince said, simply to see if Merlin would look.

"Merlin, go back to bed." came the voice of a girl, walking into the room. She had long, green-dyed hair and equally green eyes. A sparkling smile of hers filled the room, and she carried a pink and brown keyblade in her left hand. "Sorry I'm late," she said, closing the door, "the Heartless out there are terrible today."

"Uh... hi." Charity said, a bit confused.

"You must be Charity!" she said sweetly, "I heard a lot about you. My name's May. I'm going with you to find the pieces of Blue Hour."

"She... insisted." Aerith said as nicely as possible.

"Anything to help." she replied sweetly.

xxxxx

"That certainly was... odd." Nessa complained as they waited in the familiar Gummi Ship, "Where did Cid say the first world was?"

"Hula Island." Sora replied. He felt quite stupid answering that.

"Never been there." Kairi said, excitedly. "I can't get over how much you've grown!" she said to both Nessa and Charity.

"Not as much as you," Charity mentioned back, "I guess one year apart can do a lot to some people." she looked over at Riku.

"You're telling me." Kairi mumbled.

"How do we land this thing again?" called Sora from the cockpit.

"God damn." Riku complained, rushing to go help him.

xxxxx

"Shaky landing, but not bad I think!" Sora said proudly, stepping out of the Gummi Ship unharmed.

"Not bad?" asked Charity, "Nessa sprained her ankle! Quince had to use Curaga on her for pete's sake."

"Pete's here?" asked Sora, worried. Charity put her hand to her forehead at least three times before putting her hands together and looking Sora in the eye.

"No. Pete is not— okay, fine. Pete's here."

"Where?!" asked Sora, looking around like a hamster.

"I think you didn't get enough summer vacation." Riku suggested to Charity. Charity nodded slightly, looking back up at him.

Suddenly it was as if Charity felt that she was back at Hollow Bastion with everybody, right at the beginning of their first journey. Leander and Anton were both still there, and Nessa was with the Organization.

"I wonder where the part is." May thought aloud.

"Knowing my luck, it's probably underwater." Charity mumbled, as they walked over to the ocean part of the beach they had landed on. It was a place in which tourists could have been flocking had it not been for Shadows being around every corner.

"Actually," May said, looking over the horizon, "I might know."

As she led the keyblade wielders and Nessa farther down, Charity noticed something odd, and it wasn't the fact that a small, blue dog-like creature had tackled Sora.

"Stitch!" he laughed, "What are you doing here?" Apparently Stitch had been somebody that he met on his journeys.

"Lilo!" he managed to blurt out, pointing behind him.

A little girl who couldn't have been much older than five years old ran up to him, yelling for him. "Sorry, he always gets ahead of me."

"That's okay," Sora mentioned, "We're friends. Er... but, doesn't he usually have more arms than that?"

Lilo's eyes widened, "You know? Don't tell anybody."

"This is just a little weird." Charity mumbled to Nessa.

Suddenly, May got an odd look on her face. "Hey, Charity, I was wondering, could you teach me how you do that specialty light spell of yours?" she asked.

Charity was flattered, "Sure. I had no idea that other people know about it."

"You have no idea." she mumbled. Charity took May to the side.

"I don't have a really good feeling about that girl." Riku muttered.

"Actually, neither do I." Quince told her, "I guess we have to deal with it."

"So, what do you need to learn about it?" asked Charity, when they were far enough out of sight for May's liking. She sure had a weird taste in her surroundings when she learned a new technique.

"Well, sort of... how to surprise the enemy with it." Her lips curled into a smile, "Look up."

xxxxx

"They've been gone for a while." complained Sora.

"If you need me to help you find them," offered the strange Hawaiian little girl, "I know every part of this area of the island. Except lately all these weird people with black and white keys are running around."

"Where are they, mostly?" asked Riku to Lilo.

"Well, they're mostly over where those two girls went." she said, holding Stitch back from attacking a small butterfly.

"They're—?" Riku's eyes widened to an extent they never had before, "I knew there was something wrong about that girl!"

After running in the same general direction for a long time, they finally came upon May, who was standing on her own in the middle of the field, grinning.

"What the _hell_ is wrong with you?" asked Kairi, as Destiny Blade flashed into her hands.

"Just following orders." she said innocently.

"Do you work for the Light wielders?" asked Riku, very upset at this point, "I want answers!" he shouted at her.

"Surprisingly... no." Her pink and brown keyblade suddenly slipped its guise right off, to reveal a pitch black keyblade, "I belong with the Dark wielders."

Without thinking, Riku jumped at May with his keyblade. As if she had carried a keyblade years before he even knew they existed, she spun around and knocked his keyblade out of place, jamming hers into his gut. As Riku lay on the floor, he felt something burning up inside of him— something he hadn't felt in at least two years. He was not in pain, no, far from it. He was enjoying this feeling. Looking up at May as his Way to Dawn appeared in his hands, he swiftly hit the girl, and she fell to the floor.

"Riku! What's wrong with you?" came Kairi's voice.

Riku calmed down slightly, shaking his head, "It's nothing. Nothing." he said, trying to convince himself more than anyone around him.

May smiled despite her hard blow, "That's what falling into the darkness twice can do. It gets to you." she said in a sugar sweet voice, pointing to her head.

"Yes, it can." Charity's voice pierced, stabbing May with her keyblade in the back. Before she could say anything, May fell to the ground. She was either paralyzed or in shock, but nonetheless, the group decided it was time to go.

"What's going on?" asked Lilo, who finally caught up to them.

"N-nothing, sweetie." Nessa reassured her.

"Do you all need to come inside?" she asked, pointing in the direction to her house, "you look like you've got something that my sister calls 'hysteria'."

"What a sweet child." Charity mumbled. They followed her out of the field, and Riku began to whisper to her.

"How did you escape?" he asked her.

"They weren't very bright. I just knocked a couple of them around a little bit, and grabbed this." she mumbled, holding out half of what looked to be a keyblade handle. It was beautiful, almost as if it was made of opal.

"I love you." Riku laughed, kissing her on the head.

"Ew." Lilo mumbled, looking back at them.

**Author's Note: This is my shortest chapter in a long time, and I'm sorry, but I couldn't think of a good place to end it. X.x; I've got a great idea for the next chapter, though, and I suppose I'm rushing to it. XD See you next chapter.**


	3. I Will Stand a Broken Man

CHAPTER III

I Will Stand a Broken Man

(NOTE)

I told you I had a lot good in my mind for this chapter, but this one comes with a little warning; it gets a bit gruesome, not just with blood and all that, but with general themes. I tried to add as much comic relief as possible, but this might end up being a generally depressing chapter.

But, I do want to thank Igor Lollipop and Azul Twilight for their reviews; I couldn't stop laughing for Azul's. XD

(/NOTE)

"I think that was the easiest world we've ever gone through so far." Sora mumbled to everybody as they rested at Merlin's house in Hollow Bastion.

"It was a little too easy." Charity moaned as she fell on her back, "I miss last year, where everything was hard." Nessa gave her a look, "I can't believe I just said that."

"Aha! I knew it would work!" Cid's southern drawl came in as he rushed into the house. Much to everyone's surprise, he was holding a piece of the Blue Hour in his hand, and handed it to Charity.

"What the...? How did you get that?" she asked, as she tried to connect the two pieces. They weren't from the same part of the keyblade.

"This one was in Hollow Bastion, it was 'prolleh overlooked by the Dark and Light wielders."

"Great." Sora said, trying to hide his anger, "take the easy one from us. No, it's not like you could have gone to Land of Dragons or something and gotten one hidden inside of an enemy camp. That would be crazy." His sarcasm was obviously unnoticed by Cid.

"I know. That's why I got you the one from here." he stated, flashing Sora an odd look.

"That was— oh, forget it, never mind, thank you." Sora left it at.

"That means we've got part of the handle and part of the arm." Charity said happily. It looked like it would just be a normally-shaped keyblade, but on the piece of the arm that they had were molds of hearts on them; one broken and one whole.

Riku, however, was not as cheerful as the group. Looking over at them, he wondered how they could still be so happy after Charity was nearly captured by the Dark wielders. Or whatever had happened to Riku when he was fighting May. At one side, he was happy that Charity was okay, and at the other, he felt a strange inhibition to kill Charity. He tried to shrug it off, but it was eating away at him from the inside out.

"This is going to be a hard journey, I can tell." Sora told all of them. "We might need to use all the extra help we can get."

"I can help with that." a voice from within Kairi chimed. Much to Kairi's surprise, but not too strong of a surprise, the blonde-haired blue-eyed girl known to the group as Naminé stepped out of her, solidifying before them as she once had before she had returned to Kairi's body.

"Me, too." came Roxas's voice from within Sora, maybe a moment too late. He stepped out, solidifying as well, and smiled sheepishly at Naminé. "I'd hate to see you all try to fight on your own again." he laughed, most of his attention directed towards Sora.

Even Riku managed a laugh, "Now all we need is Exie and Kiur." Although at the sound of Kiur, most of the group shuddered. "Maybe not." he decided aloud.

"We'd just kick his ass like we did last time, that's all." Exie's voice rang from Charity's direction as she walked out of her Somebody with her hands behind her back and looking smug.

"We? If I remember correctly, it was Riku, Nessa, and I that destroyed Kiur." Charity smirked, looking over at her eccentric Nobody.

Pivoting on one foot, she dropped her arms, and looked up, "Well," she started, "I weakened him for you."

xxxxx

That night was the coldest it had been in years for Riku. He tossed and turned in his sleep as thunder boomed and lighting crashed all around him. He could feel his emotions swimming around him, dancing in front of him, taunting him slowly and painfully. His happiness felt warm and his hate like ice; he had no idea what was running through his mind. Was his mind still in tact? Surely he wasn't out of his mind already!

What did May say? Something about the dangers of being lost to the darkness twice. It was all out of good intentions. The first time, anyway. The second time, he let his guard down. He let himself be taken by the darkness.

The burning heat of anger... Close, close, close! Had he ever felt so strongly about anything before? What was it that he wanted to _do _exactly? He could feel the darkness swimming through his veins, making himself whole. Was he just as bad as Kiur? No, he couldn't be. Kiur was a Nobody, destined to fade into darkness. Riku had a choice... so he was worse.

If only emotions had a real feel to them, a real temperature, a real texture, and a real sensation, Riku thought, they would be more easily definable. This emotion could not be defined; close to anger and hatred, but not too far from sorrow and helplessness. He felt his love for Charity, his love for his friends, and his hate for the Dark and Light wielders all mixed into one. This confused him. Surely he had to do something.

Seafoam green eyes shot open, he stood up from his bed, and held out a hand. A dark portal appeared, letting the keyblade wielder walk through. When he returned, certainly a life would be lost at his hands. Maybe it was just a price he was willing to pay, but why? If he truly was destined to return to darkness, then there were worse ways of destroying himself.

xxxxx

"Riku?" came Charity's voice, opening his door slowly and walking in. Riku was sleeping awkwardly on his bed; he had obviously had a rough night. "Riku, we called you three times, and—!" Charity stopped herself when she looked on the floor to see the mangled body of May lying at his bedside.

"What?" asked Riku, getting up and stretching. "What's...?" his voice trailed off as he looked at Charity, who was still staring wide-eyed at the mess on the floor. Riku looked down, and sat in shock of what he saw.

"Did... I do that?" he asked. He slowly felt more anger well up inside of him, but this time it was real anger, real emotion, nothing darkness provoked. Charity ran up to him and threw herself at him, resting her ching on his shoulder as she gripped tightly to him.

"It's alright... it's okay, we'll find out what's wrong, won't we?" she asked.

"I know what's wrong." Riku looked down, and then took Charity by the shoulders, and looked her in the face, "I was destined to stay in the darkness."

"Riku..." she murmured, "That's not true. You have the Way to Dawn. It's your choice if you want to stray from the darkness, not fate's. Don't you remember what Odol said? He decided for himself that he wasn't destined for darkness."

Riku was so pained, he was on the verge of tears. A headache welled up inside of his head; he couldn't remember the last time he was even close to crying. "The darkness is taking over me." he whispered in her ear, his breath hot and shaky, "It has been since the day we destroyed Kiur. I always felt it... but..."

"I won't let that happen." Charity decided. She pressed her lips to his, and they got lost in a passionate kiss, "I'll protect you from anything, even if it means yourself." Charity told him, pulling away. She wondered who would start to cry first; himself or her.

"Hey, Leander." Nessa called as cheerfully as possible towards the patch in the ground. Above the grass were two grave stones; one belonging to Yuffie Kisaragi, and the other to Leander Simmons. Laying down the set of roses next to the gray stone, she kneeled down on top of where his body was.

"You'd be surprised if you saw what happened today." she told him, "Charity almost got captured by the Dark wielders, and Riku almost went insane when he was fighting May, the one that tricked Charity."

Nessa's eyes welled up with tears in almost an instant, "I just wish that you were here right now. I haven't forgotten... when I was in the Organization, and I was lost in fake memories, you were there. You loved me and I loved you back... and then you went away. Maybe I should just stop loving," she suggested into nothing, "maybe they would stop getting hurt."

"I think they'd rather be loved by you and die than live without ever being loved by you." came a semi-familiar voice from around the side of the house. Quince stepped into view, his calm face looking at Nessa and then at the gravestone.

"I would rather that he lived." Nessa muttered lazily, standing up on the patch of land, under which Leander's waterlogged body had been buried.

"I'm not saying you wouldn't." Quince told her, and put on a halfhearted smile. "Just remember never to stop loving, okay? I think that's the best thing that you can give to him right now. Remember your old love," he said, and bent down to kiss her softly on the cheek, "and learn to love again."

Before Nessa could say anything, Quince walked out of view. Without even noticing it, she felt her cheeks warm up before her. Slowly, she lifted a hand to her cheek, and left it on there as though she had been slapped. Turning to Leander's gravestone, she let her head drop.

"Jerk."

xxxxx

"You're saying you just... found her dead body on Riku's floor?" asked Leon to Charity. Leon and Charity would often talk when she woke up early on the last journey, and he seemed to have a soft spot for Charity, almost like the daughter that could have been. Although, in the time that they got to know each other and talked, he also learned to read her. He could tell when she was lying, as he was almost positive she could tell out of him.

"Yeah, basically." she told him. Leon sighed, and bent down quite a bit to meet her at eye level.

"I won't tell the others if you tell me the truth." Leon told her.

Charity sighed. She knew he could tell.

"The darkness overpowered me and I killed her." Riku said simply, trying hard to not make much of a facial expression change.

Leon didn't look it, but he was certainly shocked.

"I think that it's a reaction to all of the Dark wielders around," Charity responded, who had obviously been doing some thinking, "but it's just a guess. The way I see it, the sooner we unseal Kingdom Hearts and destroy the biased keyblades, the better."

Leon nodded. "It seems like that's the only way. And... you might want to stay with him as often as possible."

"What?" asked Charity.

"I think I get what he's saying," Riku mumbled, "I still felt the burn of darkness when I was sleeping, but when I saw you, I calmed down entirely."

Charity smiled, "I'm happy to know I can help." She closed her eyes in her huge grin, "I'll do the best I can!"

Before Riku or Leon could respond, Nessa marched happily into Riku's room to inform the group that Cid had found the next Blue Hour keyblade fraction's location.

"Where's that?" Charity questioned as Cid pointed to something on the screen.

"Some abandoned mansion," Roxas said lethargically, "They said it used to be haunted, purified shortly after, but the spirits were there again, and we're thinking it was because of all of the Dark wielders present."

"A... Haunted Mansion. Perfect." Charity muttered, shaking her head.

"What?" asked Cid.

"Nothing." she replied with a huge, toothy grin and a moment too soon to be innocent.

"Let's get moving," Sora told them, practically herding them all into the Gummi Ship. It seemed a lot more crowded with three Nobodies and six Somebodies, and Axel who decided to tag along for the trip. He had practically dropped his carefree attitude since Charity and Nessa returned to Hollow Bastion, but somehow they believed he dropped it a while ago.

xxxxx

"May's gone. We looked everywhere and called out for her, we're thinking POW." a boy in his early teens reported to a man in a greenhouse. He was obviously of a very high ranking; his keyblade was much more intricate than the rest and he had a powerful look to him, and his age or at least age appearance helped that factor.

"How is that? May was one of our strongest fighters." the man said.

The boy smirked at him despite his high-level appearance, "Maybe she went AWOL."

"Don't joke like that, Broden." he said again, putting his gloved fingertips together. Medium-length light brown hair covered half of his face lazily, while the eye that was showing was almost totally black in its iris color.

The boy threw up his hands in mock surrender, "Whatever you say. It says on my hand radar that the Order of the Keys is close." he managed to slip into the conversation.

"That what?" asked the older one, as if Broden was crazy.

"The neutral keyblade wielders. That's what they call themselves." Broden smirked, looking up at the open ceiling of the greenhouse they were in.

"Kill them." the man said simply.

Broden felt for the keyblade piece in his pocket, and smiled viciously, "I think I'll have a little fun first." he decided, walking slowly out of the greenhouse.

The man shook his head, "Since day one..."

xxxxx

"This place is creepy." Quince decided the second they walked in.

"Let's just look outside for the piece," Nessa suggested, who seemed to be by all means agreeing with Quince, "let's look outside before we check in here so we don't go outside unnecessarily, okay?"

"Or not." Charity suggested as she looked up the stairs, staring dumbly from the center of the foyer. A boy with long-ish brown hair and dark brown to black eyes was walking down the stairs with a pitch black keyblade in his hand.

Sora almost asked him if he was the owner of the mansion, but at the first sight of the dark keyblade his Kingdom Key appeared.

"Not smart," Axel said in a voice that could have belonged to a small child, "walking out right in front of the enemy."

The boy smirked. It made him look older, although he was at least a year younger than Charity herself. "You're looking for the piece of Blue Hour, aren't you?" he said in singsong as he slid down the rail of the stairs.

Charity gripped Savior of Balance, and shook her head, "What the hell?" she asked.

"Haha," the boy yelled, "Catch me first!" He ran up the stairs almost like a lightning bolt, and Riku was the first after him. Just the sight of the tar black keyblade seemed to trigger something in him like a lightswitch.

"Who are you?" screamed Charity from just a little bit behind Nessa who was almost running directly behind Riku.

"The name's Broden!" he called back, saluting them. He started to run down a hallway on the second floor, and rounded a corner.

"I _meant_ 'what's your rank'?" she called back, although expecting no answer. Broden disappeared through a largely ornate door, and without thinking twice, Riku stepped through.

The room was beautiful, and very vintage-looking. A large mirror stood by a larger bed, and a couch and table also seemed to occupy part of it.

"Where are we?" asked Sora.

"The Master Bedroom?" Kairi threw out there.

"Close," said Roxas, "this is Elizabeth Henshaw's room. She had lost her life to being poisoned, and since then longed for her true love. I decided to read up on this place as long as we were here, I just never thought we'd make it this far."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Axel, spinning a Chakram in his hand.

"I mean—!" Roxas's sentence was cut short, but nobody was looking at him at the time. As they all flipped to see what was wrong, they saw Broden on a couch, holding him at the mouth, and a keyblade to his neck.

"Stay back," Broden cheeked to the rest of them, "or he comes to the Dark side." This boy obviously had an odd sense of humor, but so insane that he seemed to enjoy it. Charity's eyes narrowed.

"He'd never join the Dark wielders. Not unless boy force." Sora inquired, and Naminé just stood watching him, shocked.

"Force it is." Broden purred. He lightly licked Roxas's cheek, who was too afraid to move with the Dark keyblade so close to his neck.

"What the _fuck_?" asked Riku, who was obviously shocked.

Broden had put the hand that was on Roxas's mouth on his thigh, and it gave Roxas just enough time to slip away and wrench out Oblivion and oathkeeper.

"He's just messing with us." Nessa mumbled, almost as if she wished that some yaoi scene would really start.

"Ciao!" Broden stated happily as he disappeared in a dark portal.

"Hey," Naminé said, a bit angry now, "I knew that they were on the Dark keyblades' side, but I didn't know that they had the power of darkness, too."

"That must mean that the Lights have the power of light." Riku said shaking his head. They all looked over at Roxas, who seemed to be emotionally scarred.

"What... was that?" he asked. He reached in his pocket.

xxxxx

"That's your idea of fun?" the man asked to his younger brother.

Broden licked his lips, "Fun enough." he replied, smirking.

"Where's the Keyblade piece?" asked the older brother.

Broden reached into his pocket, but slowly began to panic as he realized it wasn't there anymore.

"You're an idiot!" he growled, rushing through a portal.

xxxxx

"How did you manage to get that?" Naminé asked, just short of very interested.

"It's funny what you can do when the other one's drunk with lust." He wanted to smile, but the whole scene was burned into his memory. He handed the keyblade piece to Charity, and she added it to what she already had- this one was able to form the handle.

"Perfect." she said.

"Not quite." came a voice. Afraid that it was Broden again, the group all pulled out their keyblades, Nessa pulled out her sword, and Axel began to spin his chakrams.

Instead, a boy who looked similar to Broden but much older stepped out. His keyblade looked very intricate and swirly, and he seemed to be purposely covering one eye with his hair, while the other was an even darker black than Broden's.

"Who are you, and how many Broden clones are there?" asked Axel, smoothing back his hair with one hand as if he wasn't intimidated in the slightest by this man.

"My name is of no matter," he responded importantly, but held out his free hand. "Hand me what you have of the keyblade and nobody gets hurt."

Sora let out a sharp 'ha', and replied, "Or what, you're going to trap us on a couch?" he asked. Nessa, Charity, Naminé and Kairi were all holding back laughter.

He raised an eyebrow, "What will it take to get the Blue Hour?" he mused, pointing his midnight black keyblade at them.

"More than that." Riku replied. A familiar sensation sparked within his gut; a burning sensation. Darkness.

**Author's Note: Interesting chapter, ne? I'll be looking forward to writing the other one, but I have to tell you that besides weekends I'll probably be limited to one chapter a day because of homework and such. See ya next. :3**


	4. Under the Summer Rain, We Burned Away

CHAPTER IV

Under the Summer Rain, We Burned Away

(NOTE)

Sorry it took so long to make this one, I had a football game last night, and I was wiped out. No, I wasn't playing in it; I'm in the band. So much cooler. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter, I'm pretty much winging it. X3 Disclaimer: I don't own any kingdom hearts stuff. I don't even own the flute I used last night. Dx

(/NOTE)

"Why is the keyblade so important to you?" Charity asked, trying to hit the strange man one more time with her keyblade. He was both strong defensively and offensively, and this posed a real problem for the group.

"It's the only keyblade that can re-open Kingdom Hearts." he informed them, knocking Axel back and blocking an attack from Sora, "We can't let people like you get a hold of it; our keyblades will be destroyed the second Kingdom Hearts is unlocked."

"All the better for us to keep it, then." Roxas muttered, finally getting a hit on this character by his back.

"Parker," Broden's voice called as he stepped through a dark portal, "Light wielders are here. We need you over there."

"Damn," the man named Parker cussed. Completely ignoring the rest of the keyblade wielders, he disappeared through the dark portal that Broden had used to get into the foyer not only a second ago.

"So... we won?" asked Quince. Nessa groaned while her sword disappeared into nothing.

"Well, we got the new keyblade piece." Charity said, trying to keep things optimistic.

"And our next Kiur." Nessa mumbled as she played with a loose string on her shirt.

"All of the Light and Dark keyblade wielders are going to be the next Kiur, kid." Axel decided, his chakrams disappearing as if they were never there.

Everyone looked over at Riku, who was being silent, which was natural, but moreso than usual. His keyblade was still out, and he had anger in his eyes.

"Riku?" asked Charity, walking over to him.

The anger lingered for only a second more, but when he looked at Charity he relaxed slightly, though obviously infuriated.

"What's wrong?" Charity whispered to him, trying to make sure that nobody else heard. In the background, Sora started talking to them about what he thought Parker's weaknesses were. Nessa kept shaking her head and telling him what she thought.

"I want answers," he half-whispered back, "I want to know why I can feel the darkness inside of me even though I was saved from it twice. I mostly want to know why it feels so bad. I didn't mind it once, I embraced it."

"Maybe," Charity raised, "and this is a big 'maybe', but your body might not be able to handle it the way it used to. It's probably 'cause of the fact that both times you were in the darkness it hurt the people around you."

"Maybe." Riku replied back. He obviously wanted to get out of the mansion, and Charity took the hint, herding everyone back into the Gummi Ship to go rest at Hollow Bastion, which by then had become routine.

xxxxx

"Hey, Leon?" asked Charity. She was in the kitchen cooking for everybody because Aerith was tired, and Leon was standing around, waiting for food.

"Hm?" he asked. He moreso grunted than he asked, but nonetheless, he was answering her.

"If a person fought the darkness in their hearts before, can it return out of nowhere?" she asked. Much to her surprise, Leon gave a very logical answer.

"No matter what, there's always darkness in a person's heart. The ones down the road to light are just the ones with less, and that's all. There's probably something about such a strong emphasis on the dark and the light right now that's making Riku's darkness come out."

Charity flushed, "How did you know I was talking about Riku?" she asked him.

"I don't know anybody else you travel with that had to fight the darkness in their heart already." he looked over in her direction.

"He's wondering why the darkness feels like he's frustrated when he used to embrace it." Charity added.

"That's probably because he knows that it's just hurting himself and his friends now, and not helping." Leon told her.

"So pretty much what I said to him, huh?" she mused. Cussing quickly, she remembered the food that she was making.

xxxxx

"Beast's Castle?" asked Sora. He had a look of nostalgia spreading across his face, and a hint of sadness in his voice.

"What's wrong?" asked Kairi, looking over Sora's shoulder and at the computer screen.

"Nothing," Sora said lamely, "It's just times like these that I miss traveling with Donald and Goofy."

Kairi put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "It's not that they don't want to travel with you anymore. It's just because Disney Castle really doesn't have anything to do with the keyblade war. I'm sure they'll come up when you least expect it."

"I hope." Sora smiled into the computer screen, "Alright, so now we've got to go to Beast's Castle. It looks like the Light wielders are there."

Roxas walked up to the two and looked at the computer screen, "Another creepy house?" he asked them, not much looking forward to another keyblade wielder making a not-so-pleasant introduction to them in a bedroom.

"Looks like it," Naminé responded, looking forward. She shook her head and put her hand on her forehead, "It looks like this won't be ending for a while."

Roxas sighed, "I thought so. Let's go."

xxxxx

"It's so pretty!" Charity breathed, looking up at the large castle.

"Pretty?" Nessa echoed, kicking a rock next to the entrance.

Before they knew it, the scenery around them got brighter. It seemed to bother Riku the most, but Sora waved it off as a cloud that stopped covering the area's view of the sun.

"I don't think that's right." Roxas told him, trying to cover his eyes, "It's probably the Light wielders. That's what Aerith and Leon and Cloud said it would be."

"And we've only ever seen the dark wielders so far." Charity commented.

"Let's go." Riku said quickly, walking ahead of the group. Sora shrugged and everyone else followed him.

Exie, after being quiet for way too long, spoke up, "I don't like this place from the inside." she commented, her eyes shifting from statue to statue and painting to painting.

"That makes two of us." Nessa unnecessarily commented, kicking one of the statues. Much to her surprise, the statue fell over, avoiding Quince by only an inch. Underneath it was a hole, shaped the same as the base of the statue.

"Nessa's temper got us somewhere!" Charity said cheerfully, earning a smirk from Nessa.

"I'll go down first," Sora offered, jumping down.

The rest of the group listened, and heard a girlish scream.

"Was that... Sora?" asked Roxas, both confused and disturbed.

"I dun think so." Axel said, jumping down through the hole.

"What have we got to lose?" asked Kairi. She jumped through, followed by Charity and Nessa, then Exie, Roxas, and Naminé. Quince was the last to jump through, thankfully, not landing on anybody. He had anticipated a pile of dead bodies.

"Belle," Sora had said, "What are you doing down here?"

"Where is here?" Kairi asked, disgusted. It looked as though they were in the sewers. There was some unidentifiable green slime covering brick walls, and they were standing knee-deep in foggy water. Riku didn't seem to even notice it was there; in fact, his eyes looked clouded.

"It's the sewers." Belle replied. Her dress had long since been destroyed at the bottom.

"I know that," Sora murmured, "but why are you here?" he repeated. At this, the statue somehow covered up the hole that they got in through.

"Some woman with a white keyblade, like yours, Sora, but pure white, dropped me down here when they came! She said they didn't want any witnesses." Belle responded, obviously feeling a mixture of uncharacteristic frustration and deep grief.

"Did they throw Beast down here, too?" asked Sora. He would be utterly shocked if they had the ability to do that.

"No, he's still up there. I hear him fighting Heartless every so often." she murmured into her hand.

"Then they don't know who they're up against." Sora reassured her, "We'll find another way out of here, all of us." He turned to Charity, "Charity, it's hard to see. Try using that light magic that you taught yourself."

Charity thought back. When she first saw Sora used magic, she had invented the light spell just to see if it would work, because they were all in such a dark place that nobody could see the Heartless that they were fighting. She nodded, snapping out of it, and Savior of Balance appeared in her hand. Pointing it outwards, she shouted, "Light!" into nothing.

Such a light emitted from the keyblade, that even when it disappeared from her hand, the whole tunnel of sewer that they were in stayed illuminated.

Belle led the way, as she had obviously been under there for at least a little while. She sure could use a shower, or at least a meal. The princess of heart wouldn't stop complaining throughout the whole journey. The constant appearing Heartless could have provoked this odd behavior out of her, as well.

"Heartless, Heartless, Heartless!" Nessa shouted, stabbing one right in the center. It disappeared like sand into nothing, "Things haven't changed one bit."

Sora's heart jumped at this. What she said was so much like what Donald would have said. The last journey, they at least had a reason for not coming. But weren't they his friends? He figured they would have at least sought him out to help.

Then again, Sora didn't miss them too much at the moment, because it was such a narrow hallway that surely they wouldn't fit with them.

"I see the light!" Nessa commented. Charity got very worried at this, "No, I mean, above us."

"Great," Quince commented, "Now let's get through there before another statue covers up our escape plans."

"Why couldn't you figure the way out on your own?" Sora asked to Belle, "You just had to make a beeline through the sewers."

"It was gross." Belle replied.

"Uh-...huh." Charity groaned. Using the best grip she had, she climbed up the short, brick wall and out of the hole. Riku followed after her, before from ahead, something else covered the hole back up.

"Charity! Riku!" Exie called from underneath, shortly repeated by Nessa, Sora, Kairi, and the others.

xxxxx

Meanwhile, from above, there was a woman standing in front of Charity and Riku. They had long since had their keyblades out, staring expectedly at the woman. All she did was stand and smirk.

The woman was wearing a long, white dress with shoulder guards of golden. Her boots were knee-high and golden as well, and the woman had medium-length purple hair and a face that looked very similar to May's. This only raised Riku's anger factor.

"Keyblade wielders, hm?" she asked pleasantly, holding her hands behind her back and walking uncomfortably close to Riku. "I only meant to get the girl out, but I guess..." her voice trailed off as she grabbed Riku by the chin, and then lightly slapped his cheek.

"What the hell?" asked Charity, angered now. She was surprised the temper that she had picked up from Nessa, but unlike hers, it was selective.

"Language, language." she said pleasantly, abandoning Riku to rub his slowly reddening cheek. "But I've finally got you here. The one with the rebelling keyblade.

"Rebelling... keyblade?" she asked her, mostly to bide some time, "Does that mean, like, opposing?" she asked her.

The woman smirked just a touch lighter this time, "You can say that. You can very well say that." Her purple hair seemed to change color depending the light she was under as she circled the two like a vulture. It was then that Charity had just the right amount of time to check out her surroundings; none other than a ball room of some sort.

"Would you answer me directly?" asked Charity, annoyed. Riku, meanwhile, was slowly growing more impatient just from looking at the woman.

"Like you deserve that much," she spat at her, "you're exactly the little acid that I'm trying to neutralize at this second."

"Neutralize?" Charity asked, dipping her head forward.

"Don't compare Charity to an acid!" Riku hissed back at her. She giggled slightly at his anger, but turned her attention back towards Charity.

"Neutralization. That's what you're all about, isn't it?" she cooed at her, getting closer to her ear with every word she said as she circled her, "You and your little Savior of Balance, and your Nobody with Destroyer of Balance to top it off, huh? Peh. And your keyblade is the only one that can counteract the Blue Hour."

"_What_?" she asked her, surprised.

"It's true." she said, apparently unafraid of sharing this information, "After the Blue Hour is used, it's supposed to kill the user, but it can be revived by being touched with the Savior of Balance." She shuddered, "Disgusting."

"You're the disgusting one here, I'm thinking." Charity murmured, pointing her Savior of Balance at her face when she was at a 12:00 right in front of her.

The woman's smile slowly faded, "I was going to kill you fast, but if you wish to challenge me, get ready for a painful death."

She didn't even have time to mutter another word before she was knocked backwards by Way to Dawn from Riku, whose eyes were practically burning a deep green.

"You... little..." she growled, charging at the two with her insanely ornate white keyblade. It seemed to mirror Parker's, but it had angelic molds on it, ones that Nessa wouldn't be able to describe without throwing up.

"Little what? Language, language." Charity mimicked the woman. Apparently, she had a shorter temper than both Nessa and Charity combined. Blocking her attack just slightly, she tripped her by the feet and hit her in the head with her keyblade.

The woman stood up, and jumped high and behind Charity. Stabbing her with the keyblade three times, Charity spun around and just managed to block the fourth. Riku, feeling left out, began to mirror the woman's attack. This time, she was knocked over, and Riku and Charity stabbed their keyblades into the ground, as if trapping her where she lay.

"What's your name and ranking?" Riku asked, kneeling over. His eyes were calming down just slightly. Charity was very worried for Riku at this point. Leon and herself were the only ones that knew about Riku's sudden 'change', and the constant battling only seemed to be provoking it.

The woman's eyes narrowed, but she knew that if she even touched these keyblades, she would rebound off of them and it wouldn't end. "Estelle. General."

"Any relation to May something or other?" asked Riku, his eyes about ready to turn a shade darker.

"My cousin. Keyblade traitor." she spat at them, Charity wiping it off of her face, and grimacing down at the woman. She surely wasn't as pretty when she was angry.

"Traitor?" Charity raised an eyebrow.

"Member of the Dark wielders. She's better off dead."

"At least we agree on something." Riku mumbled. "We really should kill you." he brought up.

"We really should." Charity agreed.

"You should." she repeated, "If you could." Before they knew it, she slipped out of the way of the keyblades, and knocked them both over before they had time to wrench their keyblades out of the ground.

"Bitch," Charity groaned, reaching for her keyblade. Her hand was stomped onto the ground by Estelle, and she began to grind her very hard boot into her hand. Something cracked.

"What did you call me?" she asked, her temper slowly rising.

She was quickly hit in the head with a keyblade, and fell to the floor.

"Reinforcements!" she yelled into, seemingly nothing as she regained her vision.

"We have to get out of here." Riku said, "We can't fight them all with just us."

"What about everyone else?" Charity suggested. Riku nodded.

"Distract Estelle." He ran over to the statue to lift it back up.

"Oh no!" she breathed, running over to Riku. She was rebounded to the side by Charity, who was quickly knocked off of her feet. Charity slid her foot under Estelle's, and she fell to the ground again.

"Little light-footed?" she whispered.

"Maybe just a little." came a voice that resembled Charity's, but slightly more sadistic and challenging. Exie ran up to Estelle with her Destroyer of Balance, and together they began to knock her around like a ping-pong ball as the rest of the members climbed up from the hole in the ground. Belle didn't come out.

The woman was clearly out of energy. She was bleeding from her mouth, and she had a hand over one of her eyes. Estelle mumbled something about a contact.

"Let's see," Axel asked, who was obviously very entertained by this woman, "What's under the contact?"

The woman, as if hypnotized by Axel, lifted her hand up. Instead of the emerald eyes that she once had, one of them was now a silvery shade of grey.

"...Balance?" Charity raised the word.

Estelle growled a cuss at Charity, but fell to the ground, "I have no balance. Only light."

"Maybe that's what's under Parker's hair." Sora suggested, "A gray eye?"

"Mayb---" before Nessa had the time to think farther, in a flash of light, seven more keyblade wielders appeared. They were all wearing long, hooded, white cloaks.

"Copiers." Roxas angrily muttered.

"Dammit. She called for reinforcements." Riku remembered. As his eyes narrowed, they were turning such a deep shade of green that they seemed as though they could turn black at any moment.

"We can do this." Charity tried to encourage them. "It's seven to nine." She raised Savior of Balance into the air as if she was leading an army, and they charged at the nine white hooded wielders. They almost looked like the Organization, which seemed to be Roxas's source of anger. He wouldn't stop muttering something about 'unoriginality'.

xxxxx

"Someone call in Parker!" Estelle raged at other white-hooded members in her headquarters deep within Beast's Castle.

Obviously feared by this woman, she was handed a phone that had been pre-dialed with Parker's number.

"Estelle?" came a voice that most definitely did not belong to Parker, "My, my, look what the cat dragged in. Did the Order kick your ass too?"

"Get off the phone, Broden." she growled, "and put on Parker. I'll count to three. One, two, three..."

"Four five six seven eight nine..." Broden went on, before some commotion happened through the phone and Parker gained control of it.

"What do you want?" he asked her.

"They saw my eye." she hissed into the phone, "As much as I hate you and as much as I know I'm going to kill you one day, I want you to do everything you can to kill them."

"What do you think we've been doing?" he asked nonchalantly into the phone, causing Estelle to sigh loudly.

"One in specific. The brunette one. With the Savior of Balance."

xxxxx

The last member fell, and disappeared through the floor as if melting into the white of abyss. Riku sighed heavily, as he had dealt the last blow. The battle was harsher than they expected; the only ones still standing were Nessa, Charity, himself, Axel, and Naminé were standing. Roxas had been knocked out when he was making sure that Belle didn't kill herself underneath with all of the Heartless, Kairi and Exie had both just flat out lost their energy, and Sora had used all of his magic to heal everyone else, and was practically defenseless.

"Anyone have a Cottage?" Riku asked.

Nessa lazily threw one up into the air, and the rest of the members found themselves rejuvinated.

"We didn't get the keyblade piece." Nessa remarked.

"They probably didn't have it." Sora responded to her. She nodded, at mostly a loss of energy to respond verbally.

"Maybe... Beast... has... it..." came a frail voice from underneath the hole. As she pulled up, there was a strange creature covered in dirt with a twisted look on its face. The eyes were practically glowing, and the being was dripping with moisture.

"OH MY GOD YOU LOOK HORRIBLE." Exie blurted out.

Belle's voice only was as twisted as her face, "Maybe that's because the strong warriors didn't DEFEND THE DAMN PRINCESS." she cried out.

"I think Belle... has been under there for too long." Axel backed up a little bit.

Belle shook a stubborn Heartless off of her foot, "I hope Beast kills you painfully with a..." her voice trailed off as the group scurried out of the room and away from the mean lady. They locked her in the ballroom.

"I think she was scarier than the Light wielders." Nessa shuddered. And she, herself, could get pretty damn scary.

"Off to Beast's room." Sora said as enthusiastically as he could after the little mental showdown.

A few Nobodies had even showed up on the way, much to the group's surprise. It had been quite a while since they saw any of those, and it was probably unintentional from Axel or Roxas.

"Here we are." Roxas remarked, opening the door to Beast's room. He was sitting safely on top of his bed, twiddling his thumbs.

"...Beast?" asked Sora, a bit unnerved.

"Yes?" he asked calmly.

"Erm... what are you... doing?" he asked.

"Well, for the last few hours I've been knitting. And then beforehand I made tea for all of my cursed furniture. Would you like some?" the pleasant beast questioned.

"Um. No." Sora replied quickly, "What happened to you...?" he asked.

"What?" he asked nicely.

"_I _happened to him." an annoyingly pleasant voice replied. Estelle appeared in the room, her face screwed up from the fight, "I replaced their personalities for amusement. This castle is quite dull."

"Can I ask you a question?" asked Exie, purposely mimicking her pleasantness.

"Look, a pink sweater!" Beast said, pulling up a poorly knit pink sweater, and an expectant face, but ignored by the rest.

"Yes?" she asked happily.

"What the _fuck_ is going on in your non-existent brain?" she asked, just as nicely as before.

"I will kill you!" she growled, her face screwed up in anger and her white keyblade shining into her hand. At this point, it was one-on-one with Exie and Estelle as the rest of them tried to calm 'Beast' down from yelling at them not to fight in the house.

Soon enough, Exie with her brutal strength that she had picked up from the Organization, Estelle was on the ground, inches away from Destroyer of Darkness.

Riku felt the darkness kick in. "Kill her!" he commanded.

Exie lifted her keyblade high, and slammed it down. It was stopped in mid-air by a black gloved hand. Axel was staring at Exie intently.

"Don't." he muttered dully, "We... just need the keyblade piece." Axel twisted his body around slightly, and held out a hand.

Without asking, her eyes mostly full of thanks, handed Axel the keyblade from inside of her pocket.

"Let's go back." Axel told them.

Roxas was confused; this was most definitely not like him.

xxxxx

"Riku," Charity asked as she looked down at the slightly completed Blue Hour, "It was kicking in earlier, wasn't it?"

Riku crossed his arms and looked upwards importantly, "It'll go away when the Light and Dark wielders' keyblades are destroyed."

Charity gave a sad smile, "Somehow I don't think so." She didn't say this too loud, but kissed him on the cheek and stood up, "I'm going to see how Sora's flying the ship." Chip and Dale hadn't shown up because they had another day off. Charity looked down at her injured hand and wondered how she had fought through all of that.

Without even thinking about it, Riku pulled out his keyblade and said, "Curaga." Her hand returned back to normal, though painfully. Charity cooed a 'thank-you' as she stepped into the cockpit.

As she closed the door behind her, she heard yelling going on, "Quince, for the last time, I don't want to see it! And would you stop calling it your keyblade?" asked Nessa, Roxas stifling back laughter. **Author's Note: Yes, I stole that from a very cute icon. :3**

"I think we should just go onto the next world." Sora offered, as bright as ever.

"No." Charity said simply, taking control of the Gummi Ship. Ignoring the lack of ammo, she destroyed every ship in their way, and landed shakily on the ground of Hollow Bastion.

"WHAT IN TARNATION?!" called Merlin, who stepped out of the house wearing a mini-skirt and tube top. He z-snapped his fingers at Charity, who stuck her tongue out at the odd man.

"Do I have to fix that?" asked Cid, stepping out in his pajamas. They didn't realize how late out it was when they made it out.

"...Merlin?" asked Quince. "What are you doing in a tube top and mini-skirt... this late?"

"I was at the club scoring some hot guys." Merlin replied.

"I swear, he's gone loopy since the last adventure." Sora murmured, shaking his head as if it was a real loss.

"The Heartless got to him." Quince said, "Although I must say, it would be pretty awesome to be able to walk around shamelessly in a mini-skirt."

Nessa slapped him, "Fuck the what?!"

Kairi backed up slightly.

"This has been the weirdest day... I swear." Riku mumbled, killing the mood as he passed out on the floor.

"Riku!" called Charity. His eyes had just shut; and they were totally black at this point. The rest of the group had no idea what was going on, but Leon had rushed out from the noise and they immediately began to tend to Riku.

xxxxx

"Thanks." Riku muttered as Aerith handed him chicken soup. The noodles were arranged in a smile shape.

"Merlin suggested it." Aerith told him, sitting down on the other side of Charity.

Riku grimaced at the soup, and pushed it to the side, "I don't understand." he said, "We weren't even near any wielders."

"It was probably because of the stress from the fight, 'cause you can think about it now." Charity suggested, nodding. "Maybe you just need some sleep."

"Maybe." Riku said, his two-syllable attitude back. "Do the others know?" he asked.

Aerith nodded helplessly. Riku put his hands to his face and ran them down, stretching it out a little bit, "I've got a headache."

"Drink your soup." Aerith suggested.

"Did Merlin... _make _it?" Riku suggested, "Or, to be more accurate, did he spike it with magic?" **Author's Note: Line from Igor Lollipop. :3**

"No," said Aerith nicely, "Why?"

Riku took the cup of soup and mixed up the noodles with his spoon so the face disappeared in a mess of noodles.

"We have to finish this keyblade." he told Charity.

"We really do." The handle was fully completed now, with part of the arm jutting outwards. There was also the piece that didn't fit the rest yet, that Cid had given them. The design of the keyblade was slightly apparent now, one broken heart mold would be followed by one whole one. The keyblade also seemed to shift in fading colors from green to orange."

"Blue hour, but look at the colors." Nessa smirked, as she walked into the room and sat down on Charity's lap without bothering to ask her.

Charity winced from the shock, but smiled at Riku as wide as she could manage with her, unlike the year before, braces-less smile.

Riku smiled back weakly.

**Author's Note: Now, there was comic relief all over this, but I really have no plans for the rest of this chapter, so let's see what winging it will do for us.**

Meanwhile, Merlin was inside of Riku's room, rearranging everything with his magic. Spouting out random words and doing a cult-like hopping dance, furniture flew and contents spilled out of their containers.

"Merlin, Leon wants to know if--- what, the...?" Tifa found herself dumbfounded as she saw the skirted and tube-topped man dancing wildly in Riku's room, holding a stick up.

"I TOLD them we should have put you in a home months ago!" Tifa stomped, and ran to complain to Cloud.

**Author's Note: So, I winged it! Wung it? Eh. Anyway, there you go, finally the fourth chapter. Sorry it wasn't very... serious. I finished it over at Igor Lollipop's house, so I don't **_**feel**_** serious. Te veo el proximo chaptero!**


	5. We're More than Carbon and Chemicals

CHAPTER V

We're More than Carbon and Chemicals

(NOTE)

So, the last chapter was hilarious, but I'm warning you for this chapter. I have an insane amount of ideas and I'm ready to blurt them all out, but they might get slightly psychotic or depressing. I really should think things through more before I write them. Anyway, the stupid disclaimer, I don't own any Kingdom Hearts characters. I don't even own that one Riku figure that I want so bad.

(/NOTE)

"It's late. You should really go to bed, Charity." Aerith told her. She was still sitting on the couch, staring at the floor. Riku had long since gone to bed, and Nessa just recently. The rest of them were probably long out. Three in the morning was not a time when most would still be up.

"I should." she agreed quietly, stretching her legs. For the last three hours she had just been thinking. What would she do if Riku went back into the darkness? What would she do if she lost him forever? A year was long enough without him, but forever? "Good night." she said quietly, hearing a mirror from Aerith.

Charity rounded the corner for her room, and on the way saw Riku's. His door was open, and he was sleeping in his clothes on top of his bed. Obviously, he had unintentionally fallen asleep, probably trying to stay up and think like she had. Everything was rearranged, and in the oddest ways. Charity could bet a hundred Munny that it was Merlin.

Without thinking twice, Charity quietly crept into Riku's room. He looked so defenseless when he was sleeping, and that made Charity smirk both out of humor and love. She yawned, and looked down at him. Laying down by his side, she held his open hand as she closed her eyes.

"_There you are! What's going on?" a boy's voice called. Charity spun around; she was standing in a town of some sort, in the middle of two boys. One of them was a younger version of Riku; he was wearing a yellow and black vest with blue pants, and his hair was shorter. The other one, Charity could only guess was Sora. He had not changed much except apparently his voice had._

"_Riku!" the boy said happily, and walked straight through Charity and over to Riku. He began to mess around with the boy's cheeks, and Charity looked down at her hands with utter shock._

"_What's going on?" she asked herself. She couldn't see her hands, either._

"_Hey, hey, cut it out!" Riku responded, playfully shooing his hands away._

_Sora looked dazed, "I'm not dreaming this time, right?" he asked, looking up and down Riku._

"_Apparently I am." Charity muttered to nobody. It was quite obvious she was dreaming, but she didn't have the ability to wake up from it. She wasn't too sure if she wanted to wake up, anyway. It was probably a memory of Riku's. But how was she seeing all of this?_

_The scene flashed. She was standing in a dark room. This time, it was Riku and a woman much taller than him that looked very scary. She grinned, "You see? It's just as I told you." her voice said icily. "While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend, he quite simply replaced you with some new companions."_

"_You're wrong!" Charity tried to shout. It seemed as though she could talk, but when she tried to scream nothing would come out._

"_Evidently, now he values them far more than he does you."_

"_Riku, don't listen to her!" she mouthed in an attempted scream. Flash._

_She knew this place. It was the inside of Monstro that Riku, Nessa, and herself were trying to navigate the year earlier._

"_Pinocchio, stop fooling around. This is no time for games." Sora called over to a small puppet. Two characters were with him; Charity guessed from Sora's stories that these were Donald and Goofy. The three began to walk away._

"_But Sora, I thought you liked games." Riku's voice interrupted the silence, "Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the keyblade?"_

_Didn't Riku have a keyblade as well? Obviously Charity just had to stand back and watch. Flash, back in another part of Monstro._

"_What about it, Sora? Let's join forces to save Kairi." Riku offered, "What? You'd rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?" Riku asked amused, as Sora pulled out his keyblade. Pinocchio, meanwhile, was sitting in the back, looking utterly dumbed down._

"_Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience." Sora told him._

"_Conscience?" raised Riku. Flash._

_They were on top of some kind of ship, Riku on a higher level. "Are they more important to you?" he asked, "More important than old friends?" He raised an eyebrow, "Instead of worrying about them, you should be asking... about her." He moved out of the way, to reveal a younger Kairi sitting dazed on the floor of the level. It was surprising to see the three of them three years ago. They seemed like they had changed both in the physical and in their mentality._

"_Riku." Charity mumbled to herself. He cared so much about Kairi. Charity didn't even seem to be able to remember that this was long ago and she was just like a sister to him. It seemed like so much more. Charity stifled back a whimper with her hand._

_Flash._

_A very pretty scenery, Charity had been described this world before as the Radiant Garden. Somehow it looked darker now. Riku was talking to Beast, who didn't seem to have changed much in three years, either._

"_No vessel, no help from the Heartless," Riku called down to the Beast from a higher ice-like platform, "So tell me, how'd you get here?"_

_The beast shivered. It was quite cold, "I simply believed. Nothing more to it."_

_Those words made Charity smile. Maybe Riku could learn something from them._

"_When our world fell into darkness, Belle was taken from me. I vowed I would find her again, no matter what the cost." he spread his arms out slightly, "I believed I would find her. So here I am," his voice grew steadily angrier, "she MUST be here. I will have her back!"_

_Riku, not at all unnerved by the beast, made a motion with his hand and exclaimed, "Take her if you can!" Belle must have been a Princess of Heart for Riku to be stressing over her. It pained Charity to see him so overwhelmed by the darkness. It wasn't the calm, strong and silent Riku she knew now._

_Flash._

"_You're wrong, Riku." Sora called to Riku. He was standing in front of some swirling opening, and surrounding them were the Princesses of Heart trapped into small little vessels. "The darkness may destroy my body, but it can't touch my heart." He put his hand to his chest, "My heart will stay with my friends. It'll never die!"_

_Flash._

"_Let your heart, your being become darkness itself!"_

Charity woke up gasping. What was all that she had just seen? Much of it was already a blur, but very important parts she could still recall. Sora had just told Riku that his heart could never die because it was within his friends.

"So familiar." Charity whispered. She looked to her side at Riku. They were still holding hands; but Riku's hand was surrounded with swirling darkness. Was that how she had seen all of his past memories of Riku's darkness?

"You saw them, didn't you?" Riku whispered as he pulled his body up and let go of Riku's hand. Charity flushed a little bit.

"I—..."

"I'm sorry." Riku told her. He flipped to his side so his feet touched the ground on the edge of his bed, and Charity mimicked him.

"What are you talking about?" she asked him.

"I'm sorry... about all of that. That it happened and that you had to see it." He looked up slightly, and the glint in his eye looked the same as when the younger Riku was in the castle in the Radiant Garden, looking over at Sora both amused and frightened just in the slightest.

"Riku..." she whispered.

"But I can't change what's already been done. I just want you to know that I beat it. I did." he told her, but looked like he was trying to convince himself.

"I... then how are you still... this... doesn't make sense." Charity put her hand to her head, looking down as her vision fogged, "If you beat it, how are you still in the darkness?" her voice cried out.

"Let me show you." Riku told her. He gently pulled down her hand from her forehead, and it glowed black again. Charity could feel her eyes closing, but she stayed sitting up.

_Riku dropped his keyblade. "Riku!" Sora had called to him. He had obviously just lost a big fight._

"_Sora, Sora, the keyhole!" Goofy called to Sora as Riku disappeared. Charity gasped sharply, and followed Sora. He walked up to the swirling keyhole behind them, and held up his keyblade to try to seal it._

"_It won't work, the keyhole's not finished yet!" Goofy panicked as no reassuring light sprang from the keyblade. Sora lowered his hand._

"_What can we do?" Sora asked, distressed._

"_Maybe we gotta go wake Kairi up." Goofy suggested. Despite his stupid look, he obviously had some brains with him._

"_I think you're right..." Sora agreed, "If we could free her heart, but... but how?" he asked, looking up for a sign._

"_A keyblade that unlocks peoples' hearts... I wonder." Sora asked himself, looking down at Riku's dropped keyblade._

"_Sora?" asked Goofy as he raised the keyblade, "Sora, hold on!"_

"_No, wait!" Donald shouted._

"_Sora, don't!" Charity shouted as he pulled the keyblade up towards his chest._

_He gave them a big smile, and stabbed the keyblade into his chest._

_Flash._

"_The keyhole is now complete," a dark-skinned white-haired man had told Donald, Goofy, and Kairi, "You have served your purpose, but now it's over."_

"_Don't make another move!" Donald shouted, though very inaudibly, as the man walked towards them._

"_Do you think we could stop him all by ourselves?" Goofy attempted a whisper at Donald as he held his shield close to his face._

"_I don't know..." Donald responded._

_The man began to twitch. "I–impossible," he said._

"_No." Riku's reassuring voice chimed in. He appeared in front of the man, and spread his arms out as if to stop him from attacking Donald, Goofy, or Kairi. "You won't... use me for this!" he shouted._

_Was it true? Was he really overcoming the darkness? "I'm here!" Charity shouted, grabbing his hand. Much to her surprise, her invisible one could touch his. It was solid._

"_Riku!" Kairi shouted._

"_You gotta run!" Riku warned his friend, throwing his other hand forward, "The Heartless are coming!"_

_Flash._

_Donald, Goofy, and Sora were pushing hard in a desperate attempt to close a giant, white door in what was obviously the Realm of Darkness. "Is this Kingdom Hearts?" Charity tried to ask them, although not expecting an answer._

"_I can't..." Sora mumbled._

"_Don't give up!" Riku shouted, grabbing the door from the other end._

"_Riku!" Charity called out to him, "Get out of there!"_

"_Come on, Sora! Together we can do it!"_

_Flash. The door was closing._

"_Take care of her."_

Charity's eyes shot open. "Riku!" she said, throwing her arms around his neck. "Don't go... stay back." she murmured.

"I'm here." he reassured her, "I fought the darkness. I went down the Road to Dawn. I'm here." he cooed.

"You're not..." Charity cried into his shoulder, "You have to fight it. You're falling back in."

xxxxx

"Twilight town, next," Roxas told them all happily as they piled into the Gummi Ship. He obviously missed the place.

Exie elbowed Charity. She had only come out a few times in Twilight Town, but she was always innerly bothering Charity to go to the beach over the summer, and constantly interrupting her thoughts when she was trying to do homework or anything of the like. Charity giggled. Looking back at Riku, he smiled back at her.

"I've been thinking about what you said," Riku told her, "and I'm going to fight it. Seeing those memories last night reminded me; I can't go back to that."

Charity smiled, "I'm glad."

"What?" asked Exie, obviously confused. She looked over at her mirror, and waved it off, "It's nothing." she replied airily.

"You'd figure that Odol couldn't handle the amount of Heartless that could invade Twilight Town on his own. That's as bad as when I tried." Roxas shook his head.

"How was Odol?" Kairi asked Nessa and Charity.

"Just like a regular kid," Nessa replied, sipping from a cup of orange juice, "he wasn't meant for the darkness and he knew it. I think it was because Anton had told him that he was. He had just gotten a keyblade and he was confused, that's all."

"Probably thought it was the right path to take." Charity murmured.

"Well, we can half thank Kiur for that." Riku told them, messing with the back of his hair.

"Prolly." Axel responded. They landed soon at Twilight Town.

"Charity! Nessa!" Olette called, running towards the two of them. Odol, Hayner, and Pence followed closely behind. She embraced the two of them in a huge hug, and the rest of them exchanged greetings, too.

"Odol told us that you left, but we can't believe you didn't say good-bye!" Pence said. They seemed to be ignoring the rest of the group.

"It was sudden! Sorry!" Charity laughed, as Hayner and Pence lifted her into the air and carried her over their shoulders. They seemed to like to do this often just to freak her out.

"You're not leaving again, are you?" asked Odol, who was squeezing Olette's hand hard.

"Who are these people?" asked Quince, shaking his head slightly.

"They're my friends from home." Nessa responded. She was surprised at her own choice of words; she hadn't quite been able to call Twilight Town her home until she left it like she had left Azure Daybreak.

Letting Charity down, they all smiled expectantly at Charity and Nessa. In the meantime, Roxas was just staring at them with nostalgia. Even though the world he lived in was just a reverse Twilight Town, their personalities didn't change a bit.

"Nessa, Charity, the heartless have been crazy," Odol told them, and Olette rested her head on his shoulder, "Everywhere, and they're really strong. I've sealed the keyhole three times already but somebody keeps unsealing it."

"It's because the Light and Dark wielders from the Keyblade war aren't going to rest until this world is either drowned in darkness or light." Nessa told him importantly.

"Light or Dark wielders? I haven't seen anything like that around here." Odol said. They all decided to just hang around in the Sandlot, and sat in the middle of the floor. Much to their liking, Seifer, Fuu, Rei, and Vivi weren't there that day.

"Could you guys stop cuddling for three seconds?" asked Hayner angrily at Odol and Olette.

"I thought you liked cuddling," purred Nessa, putting her hand on Hayner's chest.

Charity cracked up, "The same old punishment for jealousy, Hayner!"

"Nessa hasn't changed a bit." Pence laughed as he shoved another Sea Salt ice cream down his throat. At least his metabolism was slowly getting better.

Hayner's face turned a bright red, "Knock it off," he said, but not moving away at all. In fact, if Charity wasn't mistaken, he was quite enjoying her rubbing his chest.

Quince snorted and looked away, and Nessa pulled her hand away, laughed, and punched him in the shoulder. "Couldn't help it." she laughed.

"Nessa," Quince said quickly, grabbing her hand. This time Nessa blushed as she was pulled up from the ground, "Let's go get rid of some of the Heartless."

Nessa raised an eyebrow, "Maybe we'll see a Light or Dark wielder on the way." she suggested, as to not make him feel stupid.

"Do you like Nessa?" Pence laughed at him. Hayner shook his head quickly.

"No, she's just... hot. And she makes a lot of sexual advances." he complained.

Roxas laughed at this.

"Hey," Hayner asked, getting off the subject, "I can't put my finger on it but you look so familiar."

Roxas gave a weak smile, "You, too. Maybe we met somewhere." It was hard for him to pretend that they were never friends before, even though they technically weren't. In the alternate Twilight Town, Hayner was his best friend in the world. But in Organization life, it would have to be Axel. Now where did he stand?

xxxxx

"They're everywhere, I swear it!" Nessa shouted, slicing her sword through at least three Heartless at a time. Quince, on the other hand, was taking them one by one, but much faster than Nessa was.

"I bet it's the Dark wielders." he said, looking up at the sky. It seemed to get darker and darker the more they fought, and it was still midday. The keyblade he was using, Maybe Memories, glinted slightly under the darkness.

They finally destroyed the last of them that they could see in the specific area of the Tram Commons, and made their way to the Mansion. "I'm worried about Riku." Nessa said, "Charity, too. She cares a lot about him and he's falling back into the darkness."

Quince smirked, "You know, I fought the darkness once, too."

Nessa laughed. "You liar."

They approached the hole in the wall where they made it out and to a very creepy looking forest. It was all too familiar to Nessa, but unknown to Quince. Weaving through trees in the forest, Nessa realized that maybe Quince was right; the forest was darkening so quickly that it probably was Dark wielders.

"I'm surprised there aren't any Heartless here." Quince spoke, much too soon as a flock of Heartless appeared from the ground. It was nice that Roxas and Axel weren't stressed out, though, or else they might accidentally send out another herd of Nobodies.

"Nice going!" Nessa whined as she prepared to take out another bunch of Shadows, and much to her displeasure, the Knights as well.

They were, surprisingly gone in just a few swipes, and a dark portal appeared in front of them. Stepping out were the familiar faces of Broden and Parker.

"You again." Nessa complained to the two of them. Broden smirked and walked closer to her.

"Don't make another move!" Quince warned him. Broden laughed, and Parker stood back. He seemed very impatient with his brother.

"Where would the fight be, then?" he asked like a little boy. Quince grimaced, and pointed Maybe Memories in his face.

"Where's the keyblade piece to this world?" asked Nessa, as Quince and Parker stood preoccupied, shouting insults at each other.

"That's what we're trying to figure out, if Broden would get a move on." Parker folded his arms and looked over at his brother. They had engaged in a full-out keyblade battle. Nessa didn't like where this was going; she remembered fighting Parker with the rest of the group. There wasn't even a clear winner because he had to leave to defend the Dark wielders from the Light, but he was so insanely strong they probably wouldn't have won.

Still Nessa held up her keyblade in defense and put on a serious face, "Not if we find it first." she warned him.

"I'd like to see you try, really, I would." Parker taunted her, pulling Broden back by the collar of his shirt. "It doesn't look like it's here if you two haven't found it yet. Now we have better things to do than deal with the likes of you, so we'll be going." Parker smirked, and they walked through a portal.

"Wait!" Nessa shouted, and ran through the portal just before it closed on Quince.

"Nessa!" he shouted angrily, throwing his arm down in one sweeping motion. His keyblade fell out of his hand and disappeared on the ground. He didn't still have the darkness with him. "I have to get everyone else.

He ran back the way he remembered coming in hopes that the rest of them were still there.

xxxxx

"All according to plan," Broden laughed as Nessa stayed tied to a chair in Naminé's room. It didn't seem to have changed at all since they had last battled and destroyed Kiur in the dark realm alternate of the beautiful, white room.

"Now I call up Estelle to tell her that we've captured a member of the Order, and when she comes over we kill her." Parker stated, pleased with himself as he pulled out a cell phone from his pocket and walked out of the room.

"You wait!" Nessa went on, complaining loudly, "Quince is going to go get help and then everyone else is going to come here and then they're going to save me and then they are going to totally own you and—!"

"Sure, sure." Broden said smugly, locking the door to the room. Nessa gulped as he walked over and sat on her lap.

"Get off of me!" she commanded him.

"Should I really?" he asked softly as he put a hand on her thigh and another one under her chin, "Heh. I'll do what I want with you once Parker's done with his little hatred for his own sister."

Completely ignoring her discomfort, Nessa's eyes widened in response, "Estelle's his... _sister_?" she asked, dumbfounded.

"Mine, too, but they're the twins." he said lazily, "Destined for the opposite ends of the spectrum, light and darkness. Balanced when together, balancing the Keyblade Wars wielders, but when apart scary as all hell."

"So, they're trying to kill each other so either darkness or light will reign." Nessa learned, finally relaxing, "Why did you take the dark side?"

Broden shrugged, laying back on her only to add to her discomfort, "It's random. Most of our family, our cousins and everything ended up on the dark side. We were surprised that most of us were even wielders at all, but I guess it's expected since we have the Generals in our family." he laughed, and for once she could sense a hint of sadness in his eyes, "The fight even stopped them from doing anything to save our parents and our world."

"Where's your world?" asked Nessa in sympathy. Her mother and uncle had also been destroyed when her world was blown apart by Anton, her own cousin.

"Azure Daybreak."

Parker somehow wrenched the locked door open, and Broden sprang up, looking at his brother.

"She'll be here any second. Will you stop trying to have sex with the enemy?"

xxxxx

"It's over here!" Quince directed them. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Exie, and Charity followed him, while Naminé, Roxas, and Axel stayed behind to help protect Hayner, Pence and Olette from the rest of the Heartless, because Odol was obviously too lazy.

"They disappeared over here?" asked Charity. The place looked totally normal, "But that doesn't tell us where they are now."

"Where else except another creepy house?" asked Quince, looking up at the mansion. "First the Haunted Mansion, then Beast's Castle, and now this. I want to go back to that Hawaii world with those tourists."

"And I want my friend back." Charity said, determined. She pulled out Savior of Balance and unlocked the gate. They all ran through and into the Heartless-infested mansion. Just two steps in and a whole crowd had attacked them.

Meanwhile, Estelle had shown up at the Mansion, her emerald contact back in to replace her normal eye. The wounds had healed, and she was looking at Nessa with displeasure. "This isn't the girl I told you to find and kill."

"No, it's not." Parker smiled. The door behind her slammed shut, and an invisible barrier surrounded the room.

"You bastard!" she hissed, her ornate white keyblade appearing at the same time as his black one. Her eyes narrowed just at the sight of Parker's smug face.

"This is crazy." Nessa mumbled. "They can't kill themselves if they're evenly matched against each other with Dark and Light."

"There is one sure fire way." Broden raised, smiling coolly as he watched the two go at it with their keyblades. Against each other, it seemed as though neither could win; they were both too strong for each other.

"What?" asked Nessa.

"But it would kill them both, so neither of them ever use it." Broden shrugged.

"Why are you telling me this?" Nessa asked.

Broden raised an eyebrow playfully, "I didn't choose to be on sides." he reminded her.

"Nessa!" Exie called in, seemingly unnoticed by Estelle and Parker as just another Nobody. She ran over to the two, and began to untie Nessa.

Exie looked over at Broden angrily, "What, aren't you going to try to stop me?" she asked frustrated.

"Go ahead, cutie." he said, playfully as always. Reaching under the table, he picked up a small piece of the Blue Hour, and threw it to Nessa. Much to her surprise, it glowed slightly to her touch. Both infuriated and flattered by Broden's more-than-odd remark, she grabbed Nessa's hand and ran out of the room. Nodding a 'thank you' at him, both Estelle and Parker noticed them leaving.

"Get 'er!" said the tired Parker as they ran out of their room. Much to their surprise, they were both rebounded backwards by the one known as Riku. His once emerald eyes were now a total black, and he had a scowl on his face. Parker smirked. "Darkness." he muttered. Parker and Broden both disappeared into the ground as if being sucked up by a purple-and-black abyss, and Estelle disappeared in a flash of light.

xxxxx

"You're back!" Olette mentioned happily, "Where are Charity and Riku?"

Quince shrugged, "They decided to stay behind."

"I know what you mean now about Broden being so creepy," Nessa shuddered, but she looked at Roxas, "Somehow I don't think that he's really on the Dark's side."

"Are you joking?" asked Axel, spinning a Chakram for pure amusement.

"He _has_ a Dark keyblade." Sora reminded her.

"He didn't choose to be on the Dark side." Nessa reminded him back. It sounded better when she said it in her head.

xxxxx

"I'm telling you, it's the right way to go." Riku told Charity in the Trams Commons, his hands on her shoulders, "I can feel it. The darkness is the only way we can get to Kingdom Hearts."

Charity was not upset, but angry out of her mind, "You're wrong! You're drunk with the Darkness, Riku! Sora made it on light, so can you!"

"Sora had darkness in his heart, too!" Riku reminded her, shaking her slightly.

"Snap out of it, Riku!" she called to him, kissing him on the lips. He struggled for a second, but then relaxed, closing his eyes. Opening them again, they were the same light seafoam green as they had always been.

"We should get back to the Gummi Ship." he mumbled to her.

"Okay, Nessa, I get it! I'll stop being jealous!" a beet-red Hayner told the blond Nessa, as she pulled her hand back to put behind her back.

"That's it!" Quince said angrily, grabbing her head by the sides and kissing her.

"Oooh!" Pence and Odol cooed, while Olette giggled in the back.

"We're back." Riku said, "Let's get back in the Gummi Ship."

Nessa and Charity said their last good-byes to Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Odol as they blasted back into the space-like universe belonging to Kingdom Hearts.

"I can fight it." Riku told her. "Don't worry."

Charity gave a sad smile as she was handed the piece of Blue Hour by Nessa. She connected it to the handle, and finally the piece that Cid had given them connected to that. They were at least half way done with the keyblade by now.

"I hope so."


	6. I'll Keep Throwing Rocks at your Window

CHAPTER VI

I'll Keep Tossing Rocks at your Window

(NOTE)

I'm trying my hardest to finish this one, but I might have to wait until the 27th to put it up. Dx Anyway, for those of you that think the fanfiction is going to end soon don't worry, because even though the keyblade is almost complete, they still have to make it to Kingdom Hearts. :3 Enjoy!

(/NOTE)

"That was too short." Roxas commented on their way to the next world, the Land of the Dragons. This only brought back too many memories for Sora.

"Yeah," Charity agreed, running her hand through Sora's hair, "and I could have sworn that Odol was going to come with us."

"It's probably too risky," Nessa decided aloud, "He could be..." she stopped herself, looking at Riku, "I mean... he doesn't want to leave Olette."

"Just say it," Riku told her lazily, "he doesn't want to fall into the darkness like he almost did last time."

"But..."

"That was _not_ the darkness," Riku replied to Kairi, as if reading her mind, "that was the attempt. You don't find the darkness. The darkness finds you."

Everyone shut up for the rest of the ride. They could tell that Riku was having one of his moments and had to be left alone. As they landed at the familiar setting of The Land of Dragons, they realized something was horribly wrong. Mulan's familiar face almost immediately ran up to them. She was wearing her casual clothes, but her sword was readied and her hair was tied back. The camp seemed to be in havoc.

"Mulan," Sora raised, "what's going on?"

"Sora," she responded, "recently the Heartless have been attacking, but even more recently the Imperial Castle has been under attack."

"By the Huns?" asked Sora.

"We do not think so." Mulan told him. Shang ran up quickly to her, and seemed relieved to see Sora there.

"You have to help us," he pleaded to him, "you and your reinforcements."

"What if we don't want to?" Nessa mumbled. Charity elbowed her.

"Which way is it from here again?" asked Sora, pretending that he couldn't hear them. Riku's eyes were fogging over with darkness, causing Charity to tense up. At least it was easier now that they all knew about the darkness overcoming him again.

"Follow us," Mulan said as the two of them began to run east, "it's this way!"

The group followed, Axel only a little bit behind because he had fallen asleep in the Gummi Ship. He was still surprised that he was helping out this group.

They finally reached the castle when Ling, one of the ones that Mulan fought with, ran up to them with a green and orange Opal piece. "Shang, we found this inside the castle!" he stuttered excitedly.

"That's the piece!" Charity said, taking it from him. She pulled out the rest of the keyblade, which was now becoming quite large and protruding out of her backpack. Sticking it on, the keyblade was becoming much larger and showing its distinct shape.

"What the—?!" asked Ling, a little unnerved.

"Great, now that we've got the piece, let's go." Axel suggested.

"Not until we save them!" Naminé dragged, ready to help in any way that she could with her light powers.

"Naminé's right," Sora decided, and they all ran towards the burning castle.

It was disgusting inside; it smelled of ash and wood was falling down in front of them threateningly. Axel seemed to rather enjoy it, but Riku didn't seem to enjoy the scenery in front of them at all. Mulan and Shang followed closely.

"Is the Emperor in there?" asked Sora worried. Mulan nodded, much to his distaste.

"That's not good." Roxas said bluntly.

"Who would set this place on fire?!" asked Charity angrily, who never much liked fire at all. "Blizzaga!" she shouted, a flurry of icy wind taking out as much of the fire as she could.

"I would have." Axel mumbled, putting one of his chakrams into the fire as if to fill up its fuel.

Inside of the castle, right in front of the Emperor who was sitting importantly on his throne, was a huge, dragon Heartless, spewing fire everywhere he breathed.

"Dammit!" Charity shouted as they rushed into battle.

The dragon took a second to realize that it was being attacked, but when it got the picture it was fierce. The Heartless had to be at least three times the size that the group had ever pictured a dragon before, except for the ones that Sora had already fought.

Charity began to flail around as she attacked its feet, but Nessa was smart and jumped up the feet and onto its back. Slicing the hard skin of the dragon Heartless as hard as she could, it moaned in agony and writhed around until Nessa was thrown off. Pressing the O button, Nessa rebounded back and began to attack the feet with Charity. **Author's Note: I had to.**

Sora, meanwhile, was attacking with magic from behind. Exie had returned to Charity's body the night before, so she had both the Savior and Destroyer of Balance in her hands. Exie had mentioned something about 'things getting too emotional for her to handle'. Riku, however, would jump up and attack the dragon at the face along with Axel. Axel was the only one who would work near the mouth as he wasn't afraid of fire in the slightest.

"It's no use!" Sora shouted after firing another Blizzaga, "We can't do this alone! It's not even dropping in its freaking energy!"

As if right on cue, two familiar voices cried out as they charged into battle. Donald pointed his mage staff at the dragon and began to mimic Sora in his Blizzaga attacks, and Goofy went up to the feet and began to thrash at it with his shield.

"Donald! Goofy!" Sora yelled. He couldn't have been much happier to see them.

"We couldn't let you go through with this alone!" Donald inaudibly called to him, "All for one and one for all!"

"All for one and one for all!" Goofy shouted back, giving him the thumbs-up.

Sora smiled, and he could have sworn he felt a tear in his eye, "All for one and one for all!" he began to shoot out magic like he never did before, and realized that at that second the dragon began to fly off.

"It's leaving!" Charity shouted angrily. She jumped on the dragon's tail, and worked her way up onto his back as it began to lift off.

"Oh no, you're not going dragon riding without me!" Nessa said bitterly as she sprang onto the dragon and latched onto his tail. She climbed up the spikes, and the rest of the group stared up at them.

"WAAAAAAITTTTT!" Donald shouted up at them, but brought his shaking staff down and sighed. "Who _are_ they?"

"No way! Not without me!" Quince shouted. Backing up, he ran forward and sprang upwards. He just barely made it onto the dragon's tail.

"Nessa, Charity... and Quince." Riku replied, shaking his head. "They helped us with our last journey to re-seal all of the keyholes."

Goofy looked distraught at this, but then ran and practically tackled Sora to the floor with a hug. "Sora!" he called, "You've gotten so big!"

"I am... seventeen now..." he choked out, smiling. "And I'm so glad you came!"

"Only for a little while," said Donald with the slightest hint of anger in his voice, "We have something to give to you and the King said to help you out here, and then we have to go back to Disney Castle."

Sora frowned, "At least you're here now!" he said.

"We don't have time for this," Roxas said importantly, "We've got to put out the castle and then go find Charity, Nessa, and Quince."

Axel nodded, "And with such a weak Blizzara it's probably going to take a while."

xxxxx

Meanwhile, the dragon landed at an unfamiliar place in The Land of Dragons. They were obviously still in China, but they seemed to be at a burned down camp, either that or the outskirts of the city. Quince grimaced.

"It could use a little paint." he said, trying to be nice.

"Why did it take us here?" asked Charity, picking up a small doll on the ground. It was sort of ugly looking.

"God knows." Nessa asked, "Correction, God probably doesn't even know."

The dragon Heartless was actually pretty cute when it was sleeping, as it immediately started to do when it landed.

"Maybe the Dark wielders are here." Charity suggested, "and they had told that Heartless to burn down the imperial castle."

"Or maybe," Quince said, looking around, "it was looking for the keyblade piece."

"You're both probably right." Nessa said.

"Clever, clever." a voice came out of nowhere. Parker came out from behind a burnt tent, followed shortly after by Broden who seemed to be counting the lumps of dirt on the ground. "Although I was expecting more of you to follow the dragon."

"Follow?" asked Quince, raising an eyebrow. "We rode it."

"Don't go getting so cocky when it wasn't even your idea." Charity smiled.

"So, we finally get the brunette one. Your name is...?" asked Parker, looking over at Charity to clear things up between Quince and herself.

"Ch-Charity." she stuttered. She gripped onto both Savior and Destroyer of Balance, much to Parker's surprise.

"Four-hundred and ninety-three so far." Broden said unnecessarily to Parker, who shook his head.

"Since birth, I swear." he hissed into his hand. "Anyway, you're the one that I have to destroy, just as my dear sister wants. Then I can get to her."

"Why don't you just kill her first?" asked Nessa, "Or are you seriously taking orders from your sister, the Light wielder?"

"Four-hundred and ninety-seven..." Broden went on.

"Will you shut up?!" asked Parker.

"I need to collect myself!" he shouted, "Some girl started chasing me with a bazooka back in that last town!" he shouted. **Author's Note: Again, I had to. X3**

Charity immediately took advantage of Parker's moment of uneasiness to run up to him and begin to slash the heck out of him. Although getting a few hits in, he grabbed her neck. Charity tried to talk, but no noise came out as she began to choke.

"Charity!" Quince yelled angrily, running up and jabbing him in the stomach with Maybe Memories. He still didn't let go of Charity, but felt differently when Nessa ran up to him and sliced him in the face twice.

He dropped Charity, and put his hand over his face. Gashing on his cheek was a deep slice, bleeding everywhere. That didn't seem to be what he was preoccupied about; Nessa had sliced the hair away that dangled in front of his right eye, and he was covering it with his face. Letting go, he growled at the group as his ornate black keyblade appeared in his hands.

A grey eye exactly the same as Estelle's accompanied his dark brown to black eye on the left. This time, he held nothing back as he charged for them. He was no longer fighting to capture Charity or to get to his sister, but just to kill the three of them.

"Shit!" Nessa called, jumping on Quince's shoulders. She sprang herself off of him, and landed behind Parker. He spun around, anticipating this as he rivaled her sword with his keyblade, but what he didn't expect was for Quince to jab his keyblade into his back. It went straight through, but Parker only felt minimal pain. However, he could feel his mind opening.

"What is this?!" he asked, angrily. Broden, meanwhile, stayed behind, still counting dirt clumps.

Quince smirked, "My keyblade can unlock peoples' memories. I just sit back and wait." he murmured, closing his eyes. Parker stayed paralyzed in place as Nessa and Charity watched in amazement.

_A park that Quince recognized as the one that Charity and Nessa described to him countless times showed up in this memory. Four people; two boys and two girls were swinging on the sets, not much younger than Quince himself._

"_Just a year until it happens, huh?" asked the woman. She had long, purple hair and emerald eyes and was easily recognizable as Estelle. She glanced over at a younger version of Parker. Both of his eyes were still a dark brown to black, as Estelle's were still a bright emerald. Seeing their faces side-to-side, it was easier to tell that they were twins._

_The other two, meanwhile were just swinging and listening to them talk; it was obvious that these two were Broden and May._

"_Just a year." Parker confirmed._

"'_And hate shall spread between the twins.'" Estelle murmured, as if reciting a prophecy, "I don't think I could ever hate you."_

_Parker smiled, "Me neither."_

_Flash._

_He raised his newlyfound keyblade in his hand, a year older now. The keyblade was midnight black and beautifully complicated, rivaling the one that Estelle had been holding next to him._

"_This is what it feels like," he said. His voice had become much more raspy since the last memory, and his eyes more bloodshot. He had obviously been anticipating this day, "to be handed the darkness on a silver platter."_

_Estelle looked at him angrily, "Darkness can never win this war."_

_Parker glared at her, as his first swipe of his keyblade was used against his own sister. She jumped back, and pointed hers threateningly at Parker. "You said we could never hate!" she repeated to him._

"_I could never love a sister of mine that's gone on the Light wielders' side!" he spat, "Face it, you're a disgrace to the family. Our cousin May and our brother Broden are both Dark wielders too. You're the white sheep in a herd of black."_

_Estelle scowled, "Just you wait! I'm going to drown all the worlds in Heartless! Mom and Dad died because you were too careless to go back to our world and save them because preparation for this fucked up Keyblade War was more important to you. I'll show you just where that got you."_

_His right eye turned grey, as did her left._

_Flash._

"_How many Broden clones are there?" a boy, known to the group as Axel said as he smoothed his hair back gingerly._

"_My name is of no matter." Parker replied, holding out a hand, "Hand me what you have of the keyblade and nobody gets hurt."_

'_Wait.' Quince thought. He looked at his wrists; they bent in a strange way._

Releasing the keyblade, he called out to Nessa and Charity, "His weak spots are his hands! His wrists bend funny!"

Without waiting for another word, Parker went all out on them as Charity and Nessa aimed for the hands, though they seemed to miss easily. Charity had began to like fighting with only one keyblade just a tiny bit better than fighting with two.

xxxxx

"Extinguished." said the Emperor happily, "Can I treat you all to some ramen?" he asked the group, who gave each other worried looks.

"Er. No." Sora replied.

"Isn't ramen Japanese?" Donald asked Sora worriedly, who nodded his head.

"We have to go find our friends now. They rode that dragon out of here and—"

The Emperor waved this off, "Oh, nonsense, you have to stay for Sushi." he decided, his mouth invisible under his moustache.

"I..." Riku was becoming frustrated, "Fine! Just feed us the damn sushi and let us go!"

"Riku!" Mulan called, "That's no way to respect the Emperor!"

"We can't have Sushi when our friends and my girlfriend's in danger!" he yelled angrily at them, his eyes steadily becoming more dark.

"Sashimi, then?" asked the Emperor, closing his eyes in delight. **Author's Note: Why is it that I make every old man in my story crazy?**

xxxxx

"We've almost... got him..." Quince breathed, just hardly avoiding another attack from Parker. These are the times that Charity wished she could be a video game character; they could fight and fight and fight and never get any more tired. They fight all out until their health is gone. She only wished.

"I can take it from here." a disgustingly familiar voice called. In a flash of light, Estelle appeared. Healthy and full of energy, she pointed her keyblade at the panting Parker. "Your days have finally come to an end." She raised her keyblade to stab the man.

**Author's Note: Cliffhanger only because I have to go to bed soon. X.x; See you next chapter!**


	7. No Destiny when Everyone's your Enemy

CHAPTER VII

There's no Destiny when Everyone's your Enemy

(NOTE)

Sorry this took a while to get up. I had a stadium rehearsal yesterday and I was too tired to do anything. X.x; Anyway, here's the next chapter, picking up right from the cliffhanger I left you at... Heh... Don't hurt me.

(/NOTE)

Whipping his right hand up, Parker grabbed Estelle's keyblade as she sent it down to stab him. As she stood in temporary shock, he jumped backwards and stared at his sister. "Despicable." he spat at her, "Attacking a weakened enemy when you weren't the one doing the weakening."

Estelle smiled faintly, "I take after you."

"This just won't end, will it?" Charity called out angrily to the two. They turned their heads to look at her; tired and bending over with her hands on her legs to conserve the little amount of energy she had left.

"Charity?" asked Nessa.

"Why can't you both just face it?" she asked them, raising the Savior of Balance, "You see this? This means neutrality. The grey area. Perfect in between. You two are evenly matched no matter how much you want to think that one can prevail over the other."

"You..." Estelle mumbled along with several other foul words.

"We have just about three pieces left of the keyblade at most. We're going to find the rest of it, and we're going to make our way to Kingdom Hearts. We will unseal it and destroy your keyblades as we do." Her voice was full of confidence, even as Parker walked up to her, dangerously close from her face and breath as cold as ice.

"Do you have any _idea_ how dangerous Kingdom Hearts is?" he asked.

"How could I?" she asked, "Kingdom Hearts exists because of the darkness in peoples' hearts. Open or closed, Heartless will always find their way out and the worlds will never be safe. We will _never_ be safe from the Heartless. If the Keyblade Wielders are destined to lose their hearts, there are worse ways for us to destroy ourselves."

"Little brat!" Estelle bursted out, "First you kill my cousin, then you collect the pieces of Blue Hour, and now you question savior from the darkness?!"

"You're saying you cared about her?" asked Quince, resting Maybe Memories on his shoulder, "But she was part of the Dark wielders, right?"

The hair on the back of Estelle's neck was standing up on end, her eyes burning and her fists clenching the Light blade. "Bastard!" she shouted, and charged towards them.

They all readied their keyblades to block their weakened bodies, but in much surprise were lifted into the air by a moist mouth.

"Huh?" asked Nessa, with the realization that she had not been hit and was now flying in the air. She looked up and found herself being carried back the way she came with Charity and Quince. "Wha—?!" she shouted, frightened.

"It's the dragon!" Charity said happily. She jumped out of its foot's grip and climbed up its legs and onto its back, "It looks like we're going back to the castle!"

The dragon grunted.

"Maybe it's not really a Heartless." Quince suggested, lazily resting in the dragon's paw.

"Land of Dragons." Charity whispered quietly. She stood on the back of the dragon, and look backwards at Parker, Estelle, and Broden, who stared dumbfounded at the dragon and the three keyblade wielders riding it.

"SUCKAAAAS!" shouted Charity, adrenaline rushing through her body; air was definitely her element.

Nessa and Quince both laughed. In only a few minutes they landed directly in front of the Imperial Castle. "I think I ought to name you." Charity wondered aloud.

"Don't name it, you'll get attached." murmured Nessa to be ignored.

"I think I'll name you Camel." Charity purred, patting Camel on the back before she jumped off and looked at it in the face.

"Camel?" asked Nessa. Quince just laughed.

"Yes. Camel." Charity responded lightheartedly.

"You're back," Riku sighed, his eyes the same light seafoam green that Charity knew all too well. It was best that he didn't go with him, considering they would have only contributed to his falling back into the darkness.

"We are!" Charity exclaimed and looked at Camel, "And the dragon's not a Heartless." she happily pointed out, jumping on Riku's back.

"Now that everything's okay here, we should get back to Hollow Bastion." Roxas suggested, "We went through two worlds in a row."

"I agree." Naminé stated, stretching her arms out behind her.

"I'll get the Gummi Ship set up!" Sora said in his usual cheerful tone. Goofy and Donald followed close after him.

"We get to drive Excalibur again!" Donald shouted happily.

"Not any more," Sora mentioned, "Since you left, I renamed it."

"To what?" asked Goofy, both disappointed and excited at the same time.

"Sex!" he exclaimed, "I'm the captain of sex! I'm the captain of sex!" They disappeared into the Gummi Ship.

Charity laughed aloud, "That wasn't so bad of a failure. What did you guys do here, I mean, besides exterminating the fire that Camel caused."

"Camel?" asked Riku, almost the same as Nessa did. He shook his head and laughed, "The Emperor invited us to Japan to go eat ramen and sushi." He was amused with the look on Charity's face as she stared at him for minutes straight.

"Let's just get back in the Gummi Ship." she laughed, taking Riku's hand and whisking him into the familiar ship which was apparently named Sex. Nessa shook her head and walked closely behind them next to Quince.

xxxxx

Charity laid down in her bed, sleeping soundly and uninterrupted by the world around her. She was dreaming of dragons and sushi and had no idea where the time was going as she lay in blissful sleep. Much to her surprise, only seconds after she was riding on Camel to Japan, she smelled the stench of darkness all around her. Opening her eyes but still unaware of the world around her, she blinked a few times and saw Riku standing in front of her bed.

"Riku!" she exclaimed, pulling her covers up to her chest. "What's wrong?" she stuttered. He looked different. She wanted to check his eyes, but she could barely see him with such poor lighting, which was natural at night.

"Charity," his voice came lazily. He sat down next to her on the bed and looked her straight in the eye. At least, Charity guessed that was where he was looking. "Sora didn't," his voice trailed as he put a hand on her leg, "maybe you could."

"C-could what?" she asked, just nervous in the slightest.

"I feel it. It's not anger. It's a burning. It's a high." he hissed lightly as he stood up. He looked outside the window where the faintest light of the full moon burned a hole through the darkness of the blue tinted room.

Where had this looked familiar? Was it in a memory of Riku's that Charity just hadn't remembered? Something was missing, something that really made a difference. A wave or an ocean behind him. Riku closed his eyes and turned to his left and back to Charity. He smiled, and held his hand out.

Charity's eyes blurred over again. Through the cloudiness of her vision she could see Riku no longer wearing his usual outfit but a black, blue and red one with a black heart in the center. His hair was moving in the nonexistent wind from inside her room, and the ocean behind him was stirring. The wave behind him would surely crash at any given moment.

"Charity." he said in that soft, beautiful voice that Charity couldn't resist. She pulled out her hand.

But wait.

Riku was going into the darkness, sinking back into the heroin-like darkness that he had slipped into twice before. The last time, although, had been out of force. Would he be going there by choice like the first time?

Charity couldn't think about it. She just wanted to be with Riku. Surely she would drown in the darkness with him.

As her hand lay only a centimeter from touching Riku's, someone or something knocked her over onto the floor. Riku's smile stayed as he disappeared into the darkness and out of the room like sand in the wind.

"Riku!" she called out multiple times, only to be shaken by the shoulders. She didn't know who was doing it or what was going on, all she knew was that Riku, her Riku was disappearing into the darkness and she wasn't there with him.

"He's gone!" the voice that had apparently been talking for a long while finally came into hearing range. This was Roxas's voice, and apparently Kairi was there, too, shouting comforting words to Charity.

"You don't want to follow him. We'll find him, we will." Kairi's voice reassured her. Charity didn't know what came over her as she threw her head on Roxas's shoulder. He smelled like Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Odol. He smelled familiar, like old friends. Kairi embraced her as did Roxas, and Charity sobbed into Roxas's shoulder.

"They're here with me," he told her as if he was reading her mind, "your friends will always be with you."

"Always." Nessa's voice repeated as her best friend walked into the room. "Someone important to me once said," she started, "that if the keyblade wielders are destined to lose their hearts, there are worse ways to destroy themselves."

"We'll save Riku, we'll kill Parker and Estelle, and we'll end the Keyblade War for good." Kairi finished for her, "Promise."

xxxxx

The next morning, nobody else knew how to talk to Charity. After losing Riku to the darkness for a second time, and him going back for a third, they had no idea if she even wanted anybody to talk to. The only one brave enough to even attempt something was Leon; one of the first to know about Riku's situation.

"He said that he'd fight it." Charity said angrily. She was no longer crying, but she stared at Leon straight at his sea-blue eyes forcefully.

Leon closed his and inhaled heavily.

"He lied." Charity finished.

"He didn't lie." Leon told her quietly. Surely if anybody else from the group or the restoration committee would talk to her that way, she would have slapped them, but she knew Leon so she listened. "Sometimes the darkness is too much for even the strongest to fight. Cloud..." he stared outside of the window, "He's still out there fighting his own darkness."

"His own darkness?" asked Charity. She had no idea that Cloud could have a darkness; the cold and quiet, strong fighter that seemed to have a soft spot for both Tifa and Aerith. "What's his darkness?" she asked.

"A man named Sephiroth." Leon said as if he had been repeating it to himself his whole life, "Darkness comes in a lot of forms. With Riku, its his love for his friends. He fell into the darkness these last two times to protect you, and the first time to find Kairi."

"I don't want to be his darkness!" Charity said angrily, "I want to be his light."

"You were," Leon told her quietly, "you're the reason he made it out of the darkness the second time. His heart was with you, Sora, and Kairi. Surely nothing's changed."

Charity looked down at her feet. "So at one hand, his love for his friends and me is what gets him thrown into the darkness, but our love for him is what brings him back. This doesn't seem..."

"Balanced?" finished Leon, "In disguise, it really is." He pulled out a greenish piece of opal from his pocket, "I picked it up at the Radiant Garden with Cloud the other day." He looked at his right arm, which was bandaged up, "You guys really go through hell for these, huh?"

"We do." said Charity, unsmiling.

xxxxx

"Where are we going next?" asked Quince, bothering Nessa at the familiar location of Leander's gravestone. Nessa opened one eye and finished her prayer as she stood up, looking at Quince.

"The last two are at Destiny Islands." she responded to him, trying to not take her attention off of the gravestone, moving on to pray for Yuffie next.

"And then we're going to Kingdom Hearts." he said, and looked at her. "Are you nervous?"

She looked back at him; it was so hard not to like him. Blushing, she closed her eyes, and stuttered out, "No."

"Really?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Moving closer to her, he put his arms around her neck from behind and whispered at her, "I'll protect you."

Nessa relaxed in his arms, and closed her eyes. As she rested her hand on his arm, a million thoughts flew into her head. A million memories. Leander. When she was in the Organization and he was the only one that she could talk to outside of it. Leander when she returned and long after. Leander dying at the hands of her own cousin, and then herself killing her cousin over it. Just as she was about to open her eyes, one more painful vision struck across her thoughts;

Hayner.

She gasped and bolted up, wrenching free of Quince's grip. "Sorry..." she murmured, her hand to her face. "I have to go check on Charity."

As she was about to run into the house, she felt Quince's grip on her arm again. She stopped and waited for him to speak.

"I understand." Quince whispered to her.

xxxxx

A heart full of guilt and hatred, Charity stepped into the Gummi Ship and took control of the steering and weapons both at once. "We're going to Destiny Islands?" she asked them. It certainly was different without Riku; even Axel didn't seem to be able to keep the place alive.

"Mmhm." Roxas replied to her from the other end of the ship. He was sitting close to Naminé, and talking to Sora quietly about the events from the night before.

"Two times too many." Charity growled to herself as she blasted off the Gummi Ship faster than Sora, Donald or Goofy ever had.

"SLOWER!" Donald shouted at her. She was destroying all of the Heartless ships on her way with no issue; it was the steering to Destiny Islands that she was having troubles with. Goofy was the only one who seemed to be able to take over the wheel after Charity had gone through her little demonstrational fit.

The ship quickly landed at the beautiful scenery of the island that Sora, Kairi and Riku always played at when they were smaller. Kairi leaned unusually close to Sora while they walked out of the Gummi Ship, her eyes shining at the sunset ahead of them.

"It's almost night-time here." Sora said, unnerved by the time difference in Hollow Bastion and Destiny Islands.

"I'm nervous." Naminé said truthfully, "I wonder which side took over Destiny Islands."

"If that isn't an obvious one." Axel snidely remarked as the sky grew lighter in an unusual pattern before them.

"Light." Roxas said. He had embraced the darkness once before as well; it was strange being confronted with such light so often in his life.

"Where's the most likely place that we'd find a destroyed piece of Blue Hour here?" Quince asked. He and Nessa weren't looking at each other or talking like they usually did; Charity couldn't figure it out, but she knew that she would have to talk to Nessa about it when and if they got back to Hollow Bastion that night.

It was so strange leaving each day just to wonder if they would even make it back the next day. Charity wondered if Leander, Anton, Yuffie, or even anybody in the group thought that, or if she was just crazy. Her hands shook as both Savior and Destroyer of Balance shot into her hands. As if they were directing her, they pulled her towards a small waterfall in seemingly the center of the area.

"The Secret Place." Sora said. He rushed ahead of them and led them through the small passageway that was where they would all play when they were little.

As if straight on cue, Estelle was standing in the Secret Place, staring at the sealed door of the Secret Place; the door to their world. In her hand were two connected pieces of the Blue Hour; the last part of the arm and the key part on top. It was swirling, and shaped both beautifully and frighteningly, just as balance should be.

With her other hand, she pointed the white keyblade at the door. "I should just unlock this world with the rest of them." she hissed, completely with the knowledge of the rest of them behind her. "Your dear Riku can help destroy this place."

"Darkness or not Riku would never help the Heartless take over this place!" Kairi shouted at her, Destiny Blade pointed at Estelle. The location made her keyblade just as strong as it could ever be, and she was becoming the support of the group.

Estelle flipped around. Her contact was out; her left eye was grey. "With the rest of the keyblade I could open this world permanently." She held out the smaller piece of the keyblade that she held. "Come and rejoin the rest!"

Charity held on tightly to Blue Hour; it was as if a magnet was between the two of them. They were coincidentally being pulled towards each other; soon, neither of them could take it. The two ends of the keyblade were connected, and they were now struggling for ownership of the keyblade.

"It's shaking." Roxas commented.

"So it's going back to its real owner?" asked Kairi. Naminé nodded.

Unlike anything they ever expected, Blue Hour, in all of its glory, freed itself from their hands and flew towards the back of the group. Axel, Roxas, Naminé, Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Charity, and Quince all looked backwards; Nessa had the keyblade.

"Wh— what?" she asked herself more than anybody else in the group. She was holding a keyblade in her hands; was she even a keyblade wielder.

"Wench!" shouted Estelle, breaking up the moment of confusion.

"Nessa?" asked Charity, her eyes wide open, "You have my opposing keyblade?" She had remembered what Estelle had told her the first time they met; though Destroyer of Balance was the Savior's counterpart, its opposing keyblade was Blue Hour. The one to unseal Kingdom Hearts with Blue Hour would surely die if Savior of Balance wasn't there to save them.

"Hand it over!" hissed Estelle to the girl, "You have no idea how to handle a keyblade of such power! You'll destroy yourself."

Nessa relieved herself of her shock and narrowed her eyes at Estelle. Pointing the beautiful green and orange instrument of destruction at Estelle, she told her, "There are worse ways to destroy myself."

**Author's Note: Wow, this was some chapter. So now they have to get over to unseal Kingdom Hearts! But what will happen to Riku? I can't tell you. I'm not even too sure yet. Hehe. See you next!**


	8. Let's Change our Luck

CHAPTER VIII

"Let's Change our Luck."

(NOTE)

Looks like I got a lot in store for this chapter. :3 So, as we know, in the last one Riku had fallen back into the darkness, Blue Hour had been completed, and Nessa received two very shocking surprises; the first that she felt something for Hayner and that she was a keyblade wielder. Still a little while to go, but enjoy!

(/NOTE)

Charity's hands shook while she looked over at her best friend, and back at Estelle, the general of the Light wielders. Could Nessa really take her on her own? Unconsciously, Savior and Destroyer of Balance both disappeared, and Charity backed up, unsmiling.

"I... but I'm..."

"Give me the keyblade!" Estelle shouted at her, blasting at least ten Firagas at the young swordswoman. Nessa skillfully dodged most of these, but was seared on her right arm by the last Firaga.

"Ness!" Quince shouted.

Nessa's eyes widened as she looked at Quince.

Everything was so confusing. Leander was dead; she still felt a connection to Leander. Everywhere she went she could feel Leander with her. He was the only one that got her when she seemed to have no hope left, and they both felt something strong. It was as if she would never feel the same for anyone else as she felt for Leander.

And then there was Hayner. Jealous, stubborn, funny and intense Hayner. Nessa always thought it was just puppy love, but somehow because she hadn't seen him for a long time, she almost felt more attached to him.

But... Quince?

She was hit backwards by the Light Keyblade and flew to the side. Smashing into a wall, she groaned in agony, and attempted to stand. "Dammit," she stuttered. She never had such a hard hit from Estelle before. Pointing Blue Hour forwards, she screwed her face up in a foolish attempt to learn magic in two minutes. "Blizzara!" she shouted. Nothing. "Thundaga!" exclaimed Nessa, now a bit upset. Still nothing.

Before she knew it, her eyes were blacking out and she was falling backwards.

"Nessa!" Quince shouted. Fighting was occurring in the background. None of this mattered to Nessa. Her vision was blackening and the only one she could see clearly was Quince, kneeling right next to her as she hit the ground, "Nessa," he repeated, "I know you don't feel the same way for me as I do for you, but you have to listen to me. It's easy to fall into the darkness when you wield a keyblade. I know. You can't let one hit get you down."

Nessa blinked once and opened her eyes. She looked at Quince seriously, and nodded, his first comment throwing her off. She stood up, and gave Blue Hour to Quince, if only temporarily. Pulling out her sword from its sheath, she ran towards Estelle, shouting, "Screw the keyblade!"

Quince smiled, and Maybe Memories was soon readied to attack at Estelle as well.

"You do realize something, little girl," Estelle cooed at Charity; she seemed to know just the ways to piss her off, "that the Light and Dark wielders alike will stop at nothing to get that Keyblade. _Nothing_."

"I know." Charity said simply, tired and gasping but trying to keep her cool. The more Savior of Balance clashed with the Light Keyblade, the greyer the arm was becoming. Afraid of this happening, Estelle would seldom block with her keyblade, and avoid more attacks. This made her not only trickier but a lot more frustrating.

Estelle began to tire, but more Light wielders in their bright cloaks had appeared as well. The battle was extending outside of the Secret Place at this point; everything was being destroyed.

"When you're gone your little army will go down with you!" Kairi shouted at Estelle; her fighting was not top-notch, but it certainly rivaled Estelle's.

"But she won't." came a deep, male voice. Parker and Broden were in view; brother and brother, younger and older. "I know." he smirked. Instead of the hair that had originally covered his grey eye, he had bandages over it. Parker obviously didn't want anybody to see his 'shameful' gray eye. Broden sighed and looked around.

"Not much of artists, are you?" Broden asked Sora. Sora grimaced and totally ignored the Light wielder that he was currently ass-kicking, and made his way for Broden.

"You!" Charity hissed, leaving Estelle up to Kairi, Naminé and Nessa. She immediately charged at Parker with her short-reach but powerful keyblade.

Without saying a word, Dark wielders started showing up by the tens. This was odd for the group as they had never seen the Dark wielders before; they expected a counterpart of the Light wielders but instead got almost James Bond looking fighters, their faces fully visible.

"I guess the Light wielders are too ashamed to show their faces." Roxas muttered darkly as he fought back-to-back with Axel. His chakrams were even starting to burn his hands as he was fighting so hard.

As a strange relief, at least five minutes into the battle the Dark and Light wielders had stopped attacking them, but had started attacking each other.

"What?" asked Charity, momentarily losing her focus and staring at the fighters in the Secret Place, that had probably extended far out throughout the whole island.

"First lesson in the Keyblade wars," a tiring Parker sibilated at Charity, "Never, _ever_ turn your back on an opponent."

She was stabbed in the back by the surprisingly dull keyblade and fell to the floor. Quickly struggling to get up, he called upon many Heartless, four of which were Neoshadows holding down her arms and legs. Charity felt vulnerable and stupid, drunk with hatred for both the Light and the Dark wielders and losing Riku and the whole battle in the first place and she didn't want to lose him like Nessa lost Leander and everything was happening too fast and her head was pounding and Parker was laughing and something was going towards Nessa and she was on the ground and knocked out and she just wanted it to...

"STOP!" Charity screamed out to her friend, tears streaming down her face. A strange Heartless, one that seemed to act differently than the others, but was an obvious Shadow was looking at Nessa strangely. Cocking its head to the left, it put its small hand on Nessa's head.

Much to Charity's surprise, Nessa began to glow fiercely and illuminate the Secret Place at least ten times over. The Heartless stepped inside of Nessa, disappearing into her and neutralizing that light. This was definitely not what Charity had expected, already witnessing many people losing their hearts in the past.

"The Nobody's Heartless." Parker spat out, "The Heartless of her Somebody that should have existed."

Charity took a second to collect herself, but then stared at Nessa. She was a Nobody born out of the strong emotion of love from two other Nobodies, Naminé and Roxas. Even though Nessa was born as a Somebody as a young age, but only a temporary one as her body was destined to be taken over by her real, Nobody self. Even her family had memories implanted about her that she was really their daughter. Nessa and Charity's memories of each other were implanted as well, but neither of them seemed to want to give that up. Nessa was the Nobody of the Somebody that was supposed to exist but didn't, so surely there was her Heartless as well.

"But such a low-level?" Broden commented as Sora knocked him in the side of his head with Kingdom Key.

"Will you pay attention?!" he asked angrily.

Nessa quickly glowed with a fiery black; obviously this Heartless was a lot stronger in darkness than her Nobody self was with the light. Nessa sank into the ground as a shadow would, but did not reassuringly resurface.

"Nessa!" Charity cried out in unison with Quince, who was actually able to stand because he wasn't bound to the floor by Heartless.

Moving solely on her anger, Charity wrenched free of the Heartless and kicked the unsuspecting Parker right in the gut. He fell to the floor, and Charity pointed her keyblade threateningly at the older man.

"I lost Riku to your darkness," she shook, anger welling up from the very marrow of her bone, "I lost my best friend to her own Heartless from your darkness." Her keyblade was now touching the man's neck. Sweat was dripping down from his forehead and he was breathing heavily. The battle raged on around them, and Charity pushed Savior of Balance farther in as if trying to crush his neck, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't murder you where you lay."

The man coughed from the pressure on his throat. Somehow he found his larynx able to produce sound, and he responded, "Destroy me and you destroy the darkness."

Charity's eyes narrowed, waiting for the rest of the explanation.

"Destroy the darkness and you destroy the balance." Charity's eyes widened, and she let up a little bit on his neck. Destroyer of Balance appeared in her hands, and she felt a sharp tug on her left arm, replacing Savior of Balance's place at the man's neck.

"Exie?" she asked.

'_What are you doing?!_' her Nobody asked her as if she was crazy, '_Kill him now when you still can!_' She had minimal control over her Somebody's body, but enough control to jab the Keyblade at his throat.

As Charity fought innerly with herself, Parker slipped through the ground like the Heartless before him, and apparently gone from the world. All of the Dark wielders followed soon after him, and Estelle stood there as she had knocked out all three of the girls that were fighting her.

"Leave now and take your fucking doctors with you," Exie referred to the white-cloaked people as she warned Estelle from Charity's body, stepping out to become whole and solid in front of both of their eyes, "or I will be forced to kill you." She pointed Destroyer of Balance at Estelle.

Estelle obviously recognized this as a threat; she was tired from fighting but Exie had not even started yet, and she was holding a Keyblade that could easily throw off the Light power that she had been given.

"Don't think we won't be back." She mumbled as she disappeared in a flash of light, followed by her white-cloaked followers.

Everything was dead silent except for Quince's silent muttering as he stay kneeled by where Nessa had last disappeared.

"Both to the darkness." Roxas murmured, "Riku and Nessa." He probably wasn't helping Charity all that much, but he knew what he was doing when they suggested that they all returned to the Gummi Ship.

Sora, Kairi, Charity, Axel, Roxas, Naminé and Quince. The group was definitely getting smaller by the day.

xxxxx

"_Well, it looks like there're two options. One, another world's been opened. Two, Halloween Town seems to be under a considerable amount'a trouble." Cid's familiar southern drawl chimed in during the silence of one of their first few days staying at Merlin's house together._

_Riku was smiling. "Better deal with the familiar first." He put his hand around Charity's waist. She hadn't changed all that much except her hair had gotten longer and she was maybe the slightest bit taller now. This memory pained her._

_Flash._

"_We just look like a couple of scene kids walking down Town Square." Nessa laughed at Charity. This was two years ago; walking close to Nessa's house. She was pointing a camera at Charity. "Anything to say, Charity?" she asked her._

"_Yeah, I got something to say," the old, carefree Charity replied to her. She jumped onto the fountain in the middle of town square and spread her hands out as if ready to embrace anything that came near her, "Remember our names, because someday we're going to be famous."_

Charity woke up surprisingly calmly from this dream, partly because she was praying that when she woke up Riku would be snoring rhythmically on the other side of her wall, and Nessa would be complaining about Merlin.

"We've been calling you for five minutes," Kairi said shyly from the other side of the door, "we've got to get going. We're on our way to End of the World."

Charity looked around her; apparently, she wasn't even in Merlin's house. That was right; she had fallen asleep on the Gummi Ship ride to End of the World. It was a lot farther away, and they had been on their way for about three hours. Naminé decided to return to Kairi because she felt as though she was 'dragging her down', and Axel was asked to stay with the committee so he could help repair the damages not only there but at the Radiant Garden.

"Unh." was Charity's only response. She inclined her head from the couch and rubbed her eyes; it was odd that she could have a whole bench in the Gummi Ship to herself now that they were four members shorter than they used to be. Sora, Kairi, Charity, Roxas, and Quince just didn't seem too big anymore. At least not in comparison to their usual nine, and recent eleven. Donald and Goofy were asked to promptly return to King Mickey.

"Here we are, End of the World." Sora stated as they landed. Stepping out, Sora was either disappointed or in extreme shock; the beginning of End of the World seemed much different to him than it used to be. They were standing on top of a small platform, and other platforms raised up to it.

"This won't be anything like The World's Creation, will it?" asked Charity, groaning. Every floor they went up seemed to be another memory.

"Sort of, not really." Sora tried to explain to her. Abandoning the whole thought, they jumped onto the next platform.

As if straight on cue, Blue Hour, in which Quince was holding, seemed to retaliate against moving any further, and soon dragged him all the way back to the Gummi Ship. The rest of them followed for the few steps, utterly dumbfounded.

"Quince, if you're too scared you can stay behind." Roxas said, putting his hands on his hips.

Quince shook his head, and showed them Blue Hour. "I think we forgot a really important piece of the keyblade."

"What are you talking about?" asked Charity, who obviously wasn't in the mood. Her face was hot and she was feeling sick, staring at him quite angrily. "We found all of the pieces. It's complete. Look at it."

"It's not." he rebelled, finally shoving the handle end of the keyblade into the group. They all seemed to gasp in unison as they realized;

It didn't have its keychain.

xxxxx

"I don't get it." Nessa murmured into the darkness. Nobody was surrounding her. Nothing. Just utter darkness. "I thought I was closer to the darkness just being a Nobody. Now that I've got my damn Heartless, why am I back here?"

"You're missing someone very important." a familiar voice called from the darkness. A girl in a black Organization suit appeared, leaning her back against seemingly nothing. Long, blond hair was tied up in a ponytail on the back of her head. Her hood was down, and she glanced over at Nessa. "Xylia."

"Nessa." she corrected Nyx quickly, "And what do you mean? I've got the Nobody and the Heartless. What am I missing?"

"You're missing _someone_ very important." Nyx said, losing her patience.

_Someone_.

"That makes no sense. I don't have a Somebody, I was born a Nobody with my Somebody's heart. Isn't that all I need?" she asked angrily.

"The heart doesn't make the Somebody alone. You're missing your spirit." Nyx flipped her ponytail behind her, expecting a reaction.

She got one, "There's more to this?! What next, internal organs?" she screamed in frustration. "So why wasn't I in the darkness before?"

"You were." Nyx told her, "Your whole life you've been in your own personal darkness. You just didn't know it yet. And now your Somebody that never existed is in the same darkness with you. If you can find her, you might have a chance at returning." She twirled her ponytail in her fingers, "Might."

Nyx disappeared before Nessa could question her any longer. Still getting over the shock of being called Xylia again, she was mostly trying to return to her senses after being told that she was in the darkness her whole life. Where could she possibly find her 'Almost Nobody'? The one whose life that she took place of. Did she even want to?

"I can help." Riku called out. He came into view, unchanged from the night that he disappeared into the darkness. Pulling out a small keychain with a blue heart at the end of it, he dangled it in front of her face. "I'm sure it can find the soul of its rightful Keyblade owner."

As they searched through the endless abyss of darkness, Riku explained to her that he acquired the keychain the night he had disappeared into darkness, and he had no idea why he had it. "I suppose I was meant to help you find your Almost Somebody."

The keychain pulled them towards the oddest directions in the blackness of nothing they were walking through. Nessa began to doubt the whole thing, only before she saw a light ahead of her in the form of a heart-shaped moon. She looked at Riku. His eyes were the same calm green as they had always been, and they didn't seem anywhere near the possibility of changing to black.

"You go." he said, giving her the keychain. "I can't go any farther."

xxxxx

"You've got to be kidding me." Charity complained. "A keychain?"

"It probably explains why Blue Hour wasn't its natural color. And why Nessa couldn't use it at all for magic. Its keychain gives it the power." Roxas told her.

"That's fucked up!" she cussed angrily.

"Where can we find it?" asked Kairi, losing hope.

"Maybe it's in one of the worlds." suggested Sora. They were all frantic for answers that they weren't getting and solutions that they couldn't find.

"There's only one more world that's still got any wielders in it. Actually, it looks like they're all there," Quince said, staring at the monitor from inside of the Gummi Ship, "The World that Never Was." he told them.

"That's where the old Organization was." Sora told them. They were all breathing heavily out of nerves, fear, and confusion.

"And they're probably back." Roxas said.

"How do you figure?" asked Kairi.

"Axel came back because I was his light. Their Somebodies could have all had people that cared about them that brought back their Nobodies. I'm willing to bet that they're all back. Except for Xemnas, probably, considering Ansem's kind of... well, you know."

"Great," Sora complained, "just great. The old Organization, getting back Nessa and Riku, finding the keychain, what a hassle."

He spun the Gummi Ship around and they headed for the long awaited destination of The World that Never Was.

xxxxx

"What do you mean you can't go?" Nessa asked, refusing to accept the keychain, "Charity and Sora and Riku and Kairi and everybody's waiting for you on the other side!"

"I just can't." Riku said. Nessa lost her temper, as always, and slapped him in the face, "You aren't just going to abandon my best friend like that."

Riku laughed. "I don't plan on abandoning Charity nor do I want to. I've just been thinking. I've been thinking this since the first time I lost myself in the darkness." he told her, "If I've gone back three times already, maybe I'm meant to be here."

"You're wrong!" Nessa shouted. He shook his head.

"If I'm supposed to come back, I will. I can promise you and everyone else that. Just go and find your Almost Somebody. If things are meant to work out, they will." he grunted, "I've learned to trust fate."

"Hmph." Nessa said. She kissed him on the cheek and walked back. Halfway through, she turned around to the confused Riku, "It's a thank-you for taking such good care of Charity for me when I was with the Organization." she reassured him. Disappearing through the heart-shaped moon of The World that Never Was, Riku faded back into darkness.

**Author's Note: Um. Wow. A bit short, but an eventful chapter nonetheless. I hope I don't end this too soon, so I'll have to add some plot twists. Oh well, see you next as always. :3**


	9. With Me Today

CHAPTER IX

With Me Today

(NOTE)

Wow, I feel so weird right now while I'm making this; I just came back from another football game and all that's running through my mind right now is:

**Peanut butter Reese's cup**

**Sing with us we'll cheer you up**

**Bang bang chuchu chang**

**Come on, Kristi, do your thing!**

"**I can't!"**

**Why not?**

"**I just can't!"**

**Why not?**

"'**Cause my back aches and my belt's too tight and my booty's shaking from the left to the right!"**

**To the left, to the right, to the left to the right to the left to the right!**

Wow. I realize how much of a dork I am now. So I guess this might become a forewarning for the rest of the chapter? We'll find out, I suppose.

(/NOTE)

"Just as... annoying as ever," Sora grunted, running forward to slash a building in half. Somehow this brought upon a long avoided air of nostalgia amongst only himself, and wanted Riku there to remember.

The World that Never Was... how was it still there after so long? Sora shrugged this off, uncaring. All he cared about was finding Nessa and Riku, the keychain, and avoiding any possible Organization members he met on his way.

"Where do you think it would be?" asked Kairi, a bit confused.

Sora shrugged, "Could be anywhere."

"We could split up." Charity suggested.

"Kairi and I will go down this way," Sora stated as they came across a split path in the surprisingly not-airborne city, "You three over there."

Charity nodded and immediately became the unspoken leader of her group as she led Roxas and Quince down an unfamiliar path. "I don't like this place." she admitted to the two of them very softly, looking in all directions just to be safe.

"I don't blame you all that much." Quince replied.

"I know you don't." Charity joked. She quickly straightened up; how could she be making jokes at a time like this? Savior and Destroyer of Balance clung safely to her hands, her eyes burning with excitement, fear, determination and distrust.

"This place is weird." Roxas finally admitted to them. They had already seen quite a few oddities, such as random floating heads telling them not to drink soap and mysterious visions of men in black coats.

"Do you think that's the old...?" Charity started.

Roxas nodded, "It's like what I said before. I wouldn't be all that surprised." He looked to his life, "Whenever I turn around I half expect to see Larxene or Xigbar or somebody." Roxas admitted to the other two.

"Half-expect?" came a voice. At first, Roxas thought it was Quince, but when he turned to look at him, his lips weren't moving. Roxas, so very used to this, turned around to the exact spot that one of them would appear from the darkness in. Sure enough, right in front of his eyes, Marluxia stood in all of his... glory. His pale red hair laid in layers behind his pale and angular face.

"Marluxia?" asked Roxas, confused, "Where are the others?"

Marluxia laughed lightly, "There are only two of us left." he responded.

"Just two?" he asked himself. This probably made sense because not many of the Organization seemed to be pleasurable people that would actually want to be called out of the darkness. Just the thought of this made Roxas shift slightly. "The other?" he asked.

"Dealing with the intruders as we speak." he smirked, walking up to Roxas, "I could _never_ hurt you, you little traitor, but..." his head swung towards Charity and Quince. Charity gasped at this and Quince reflexively moved in front of her.

"You can't hurt them," Roxas said, "and even if you tried they've been through a lot more than you know and they're strong enough to beat you." He couldn't believe that he was saying this to a former Organization member.

"Really?" he dragged, one eye widening as his long, ornate scythe evolved from a petal in his right hand and his eyes gleaming with excitement.

Savior and Destroyer of Balance, Oathkeeper and Oblivion and Maybe Memories quickly appeared onto the scene as well.

"Respect your elders, son." he murmured as he pointed his scythe at the group.

"You're only my elder by two members." Roxas reminded him, "and you wouldn't even be here if it weren't for Xigbar."

It shocked Charity how they looked at each other; it was as if the Organization never died, feelings of his abandonment never left, and small things that they couldn't understand made a world of difference for them.

"Neither would you without Xemnas. Xigbar didn't need the big man to tell me where I belonged." In a way, Marluxia was silently threatening Roxas in the period of silence, obviously another feeling that neither Charity nor Quince could quite understand.

xxxxx

"They don't even see me, do they?" the Nobody asked herself as she stood atop of a large, most likely useless building. The heart-shaped moon shone above her like a fluorescent light in a dark room, and her blonde hair moved in the slightest bit of wind motion, something that reminded her much of Charity.

The fight seemed to be difficult. The three of them were strong, but Marluxia still happened to be a challenge. It seemed like every three seconds he was sending out a whirlwind type of attack with pink petals, or slamming his scythe into the floor, causing some sort of a ripple of damage to appear across them. This looked very annoying.

"Xylia." Nessa muttered darkly to herself as she walked to the edge of the building. The girl did not fall as she hit the edge, but moreso walked upon the air beneath her, for the first time in her life hearing a battle raging literally right under her nose.

"This keychain's supposed to help me find my way to my Almost Somebody, huh?" she asked, trying to remember exactly what it was that Riku said. His voice already started to fade in her head as he probably was in the darkness as well. She technically still was in the darkness; but the same way most Nobodies are; with the ability to see more.

In a way, it was almost peaceful to live the real life of a Nobody. She was more than aware that Roxas and Marluxia could probably see her if she looked up, but she wasn't going to bother. She would also probably be able to become solid like themselves again if she previously had a Somebody. But how was she solid then before? It was probably because she was never dragged into the darkness before. "It ruined me." she decided.

xxxxx

"Kiur." Riku found himself repeating. The blindfold was over his eyes; he was trying hard to overcome the darkness he was sucked into, but nothing seemed to be changing at all. He was starting to wonder if there was no way out. "When we destroyed you I didn't know we just sent you back to the darkness."

The dark haired individual looked at Riku with amusement, both smirking and tilting his head at the same time, "When you destroyed me you didn't know that I've been living inside of you this whole time." Way to Twilight spun around in his hand. Although utterly useless in the Realm of Darkness, he seemed to not be able to abandon his weapon even when all of the strength was sucked out of him.

"What do you mean?" Riku asked, stepping closer to him to meet him eye-to-eye. It was scary how much this boy looked like Riku. He had his face, just a different hair color and dark eyes. He had his skin and his smile. He most certainly was not Riku.

"You can't simply destroy your own darkness, disown your own flaws." he stated. A rip in the darkness of the ground ahead of them opened up to a visionary of the words being attacked by the Light and the Dark wielders, keyblade on keyblade fighting until death. "Fools." he muttered, "I see now that you can't be rid of the darkness in your heart, nor can you rid yourself of your light. Light and Darkness are eternal."

Riku's eyes widened. It almost shocked him to hear those words again. "Way to Twilight." he said to Kiur, positive that he would know exactly what he was talking about.

Kiur laughed, "Way to _nothing_." his keyblade disappeared in his hands, "For Nobodies, we believe that the only road to follow is the road to Darkness. Taint, impurity, purity and cleanliness, nonexistent. We just are."

Riku growled. Even without the ability to see him, he could imagine the look on his face. "What do you—?"

"I guess you have to be sent to the darkness to really understand." Kiur decided, breathing in heavily. He looked over at Riku for a second and cocked his head to the side, "Surely you would know what I'm talking about."

Riku took a second. "What's the point in light or darkness?" he finally responded after a minute of thinking, "One side against the other. What are we fighting for exactly? An eternal stalemate?" he asked. Kiur smiled in approval as if he was his mentor.

"Harnessing the elements and trying to make them your own. That's like trying to wipe out all of the fire on the planet with water. It will never work. Water puts out fire, but fire evaporates water. You can't expect yourself to be devoid of darkness."

Riku backed up a step. He knew what Kiur was telling him.

"I've seen you. Trying to hard to avoid the darkness in your heart. Pathetic. It's not the overexposure to darkness that got you here. It's me. It's me and you not being able to balance out each other." Kiur flipped around, and the image of the Keyblade War going on beneath them closed up like a hole in a shirt being sewed together.

"I'm not trying to fight the darkness!" Riku reassured him.

Kiur laughed, "And I'm not your Nobody. You told that girl that you can fight it. Stop fighting it. Embrace my darkness and I'll embrace your light."

"I understand." Riku told him. It almost surprised him how last year this was exactly the replica he was trying to be rid of. His Heartless had already disappeared and was back in his body, but the bit of light that Kiur had wasn't balanced in Riku anymore and he could no longer keep a balance between the two. "Just like Nessa. If she doesn't find her Almost Somebody, she's doomed to the darkness forever."

Kiur nodded. He refused to say anything more, and disappeared. "Wait for Nessa." he said even though his being was no longer standing there. "When she's back in the neutral, I'll find you and we can go back."

xxxxx

"No use." Marluxia grunted to himself, and quickly decided to disappear in a void of darkness.

"Coward!" Roxas called out to him, although he could no longer hear him at all. He fell to the floor out of tire, and soon Charity and Quince both followed suit.

"He'll be back." Quince told them.

"Stop being so negative. You sound like Leander." Charity commanded him.

Quince shrugged, "I'm not Leander."

"He's probably enjoying all this," Roxas spat, "watching these Keyblade wielders kill themselves. I won't be surprised if he sends Nobodies after us from now on."

"Try and get rid of us?" Charity asked sweetly.

At least the two of them laughed before they stood up

xxxxx

Vexen gasped as he fell to the ground, but it was quite obvious. He was never much of the fighter in the Organization; and anything to help Marluxia's plans fail was anything that he was willing to make easy on the group.

Destiny Blade and Kingdom Key both disappeared from the wielders' hands, and they stared down at him, "So the other one here is Marluxia?" asked Sora.

The response was surprisingly calm, "Yes. He should be finished with your friends by now. Or vice-versa."

"Where's the keychain to Blue Hour?" asked Kairi, determined.

"A friend." were his second last words. His body deteriorated in heaps of purple and black shadows, slowly eating away at his very being. Being destroyed once and coming back would be bad enough, but twice would be just terrible.

"Does that mean that they've got it?" asked Kairi, referring to Quince, Roxas, and Charity.

"Probably, let's go." Sora decided, and they headed in the direction that their three friends had gone as they split apart.

xxxxx

"We've gotta go find him." Charity decided, standing up, "He's been in the darkness before. He might know a way to get Nessa and Riku back."

"Can't you just do that whole 'I'm your heart' thing again?" asked Quince. How did he even know about that?

"I have a feeling that it wasn't his heart that was dragged into the darkness this time." Charity told him even over her mind screaming in confusion, "but his body, or his own spirit. Kiur might be in the darkness with him."

"Right, we sent him back there a while ago." Roxas said, still trying to pull himself together.

"Then let's go!" Charity urged, helping the two of them up. Unknowing in what possible direction he went, they simply followed their gamin instincts and went forward to the section in which the game labeled '???'.

As they walked through the tiny crevice in the building when the road stopped, they found themselves in what seemed to be a business office.

"I swear The World that Never Was didn't look like this. It didn't really look anything like we've been seeing for the last hour." Roxas muttered darkly to himself.

"Maybe things changed naturally once the Organization died off." Quince suggested.

"'Died'," Charity corrected him, making quotation signs with her fingers, "technically I suppose that's an okay word for it."

"Let's go to the top." Roxas suggested, ignoring the syntax lesson, "We can probably hop some of the buildings and be able to see Marluxia from a bird's eye view."

"It's no use." Nessa mumbled, although Roxas was the only one to hear or see her. She stood, looking down and looking upset. Just being able to talk to Roxas one-on-one reminded her of her days as Xylia in the Organization. Even though Nyx and Exie were there, Roxas was the only one she could tell anything to. She breathed in heavily, "He's gone to another world."

"What?" asked Roxas, "Nessa? How?'

Nessa shook her head, and slowly explained to him the story of her Almost Somebody. Charity and Quince stared in confusion, although jumped at Nessa's name.

"Maybe he can see her and we can't." Charity suggested.

"Maybe he's a few pennies short of a dollar." Quince said darkly, shaking his head.

"He's going to Neverland," Nessa reassured him, "I heard him talking about it while he was passing through the Dark realm. I think my Somebody might be there. Then I can come back and help you guys unseal Kingdom Hearts."

"Was Riku in there?" Roxas asked in a rushed voice. Charity perked up and looked at the mass of nothing in front of him.

"He was," Nessa mumbled, "but... he's not coming back."

xxxxx

"Where are they?" Sora asked nervously as he looked around the empty patch of city, "They couldn't have let the Grim Reaper's homosexual cousin beat them, could they?" **Author's Note: Picture reference, I had to. That's my excuse for everything, isn't it? XD**

"Sora, Kairi." Charity said, rushing out. Roxas had told the both of them exactly what was going on and what Nessa said. Little did they know that Nessa was following after them, but she certainly was there.

Charity explained everything she could to the best of her abilities to Sora and Kairi.

"And she's got the keychain?"asked Sora, holding his hand out. Nessa nodded, even though he couldn't see her. She placed the keychain in his open hand, and as if appearing by magic, no poofing or stars or light or anything, the keychain was in his hand.

"That's a yes." he decided, smiling as he shoved it in his pockets, where somehow he kept all of his potions, ethers, and more.

"We're going to Neverland," Roxas finished for her, "because that's where Marluxia went, and it's probably where Nessa's Almost Somebody is."

"What would he want with her Almost Somebody?" asked Kairi. They headed for the Gummi ship, thankful of not having to venture too far into the World that Never Was.

"It looks like Marluxia's trying to start the Organization up again," Roxas told her, "he always had this thing for power. So he probably wants Nessa as another member, and to keep her from becoming a Somebody he's gotta get rid of her Almost Somebody."

Nessa nodded and said, "That's it!"

"Makes sense," Sora stated at the same time as Nessa spoke, unaware that he was interrupting anybody, "so, to Neverland it is!"

"You sure we can't rest at Hollow Bastion first?" asked Quince as they stepped in the Gummi Ship.

"My best friend's about to lose her only chance at becoming a Somebody to a pink-haired reaper, and all you care about is resting at Hollow Bastion?" Charity angrily questioned.

"Nah, I care about Aerith's cooking." he smiled, as he dipped his head backwards. Catching Charity's angry expression, he quickly told her that he was just kidding.

"Neverland it is." Kairi laughed and they set off.

xxxxx

"It's no use. All of our wielders are dying." a Light wielder reported to Estelle, fighting back at Neverland with the rest of them.

"It's that damn advantage of Heartless control." Estelle growled.

"It would be a lot easier if you could combat that, wouldn't it?" asked a man's voice. Estelle flipped around, expecting to see one of the wielders, but just found an older man by a year or so, possibly in his twenties, covered by a black cloak that looked an awful lot like the Light wielders' clothing inverted.

"It would." she told him suspiciously, while behind her the Light wielder talking to her was knocked out.

"I can help with that." he offered, holding out a hand.

"Help in what way?" she smirked.

Before he knew it, the hooded man was knocked to the side by a fiery redhead wearing the same outfit as him.

"Estelle, don't trust him!" he told her. For a second, Axel felt as though he was speaking as a friend to her.

"What? You're one of the Neutrals." she spat.

"I'm a Nobody." he confirmed to her. Such a broad statement was almost a slap in the face, "He wants to give you the power to control the Nobodies. I'm no Einstein but I know that's trouble. They could overpower you."

She narrowed her pretty eyes, "The Heartless aren't overpowering the Dark wielders or Parker for that matter."

"Yet." Axel smoothly replied.

"I have no other choice." Estelle mumbled. Her usual, proud self actually seemed to be upset about doing something that she knew was wrong for once. Touching her hand to that of the recently recovered Marluxia, a white flash filled the area.

Estelle could feel herself tense up with power, as if she could do anything. "The power to control the Nobodies!" she exclaimed, and looked over her suffering army. In just a flick of her wrist, hundreds of Dusks appeared to rival the mindless Heartless and even more mindless Dark wielders.

"If the Nobodies can overthrow this pathetic universe," Marluxia smirked under the protection of his hood, "it will just make it a little bit easier to find the way to become a Somebody again." He disappeared into a portal of darkness, which Axel was just able to catch.

xxxxx

Sora smiled as they stepped onto the wet ship of Neverland. He was more excited than anything of being able to fly here; it seemed like this was the only world that he could really do it without eventually hovering back to the floor.

"I remember this place." Kairi told him softly. She had been taken here by Riku while they were looking for Wendy, the girl soon discovered not to be a Princess of Heart. This was when Riku was trying to get her heart back.

Sora laughed, "I wonder where Tink and Peter Pan are."

A green flash appeared in front of them, and soon an impish looking boy was hovering in front of the group, a huge grin on his face. He dipped his back into a bow and tilted his head to look at eye level at the Keyblade wielders, "At your service."

**Author's Note: Yay, I finally finished this chapter. So sorry it took so long, it's been a rough weekend. Hope you liked it! Lots to go. XD**


	10. Only Shattered

CHAPTER X

Only Shattered

(NOTE)

You all know how much I like to spew out characters, don't you? Well get ready for this chapter. As far as the last one, pay close attention because it's going to twist the plot in a whole new direction for a couple of chapters. Disclaimer, I don't own anything because my daddy won't buy me Kingdom Hearts. But I do own the Ocs.

Quince: Uhm, you don't own me.

Me: I can dream, can't I?

Igor Lollipop: pulls Quince out by the ear

(/NOTE)

"Imagine," a young girl with dishwater blonde hair spoke into nothing. Nessa stood behind her in Neverland, invisible to all around her except Roxas and the girl. Her eyes seemed almost darker than Nessa's, but she looked more like a normal girl. She wore glasses, a shirt and skirt, and slouched a little where she stood, "if you could give the Nobodies a body of their own, and the Heartless a heart." she was smiling behind overgrown bangs, and turned around to face Nessa.

"Who...?"

"It'd be great, wouldn't it?" she laughed. The girl sighed as she looked at the ground, "Without a Nobody, though..." Her head lifted back up to meet Nessa in the eyes. They looked very similar, Nessa only with lighter hair and eyes... eyes that had seen too much too young. Nessa's posture was that of a hero, and the girl's was that of a normal, teenage student's. In a way, Nessa was envious of the girl without even meeting her before.

"A Nobody?" asked Nessa, trying to pick out small differences between the two of them. Maybe the other girl's lips were fuller, and her skin less perfect. Maybe her voice was a little deeper. There wasn't much else.

"I've lived," she said, ignoring another statement from Nessa, "for sixteen years without a Nobody, without a Heartless," she stopped, and her eyes drifted towards Nessa's torso, "without a Heart."

Nessa's eyes widened, "You're my Almost Somebody?" It would make more sense than anything if she was.

"I guess," she laughed, and put her hand to her chest, "I'm the Heartless now." she scratched the upper part of her head, "At least I got something."

Roxas stared at this patiently, everybody around him wondering what was going on, and Peter Pan becoming more impatient by the second.

"I thought I was living a normal life," she laughed, "I was sent to Azure Daybreak by Marluxia... an alternate Azure Daybreak... where I had a family and friends. Charity... but up until a year ago, I've been in The World that Never Was. Waiting for Marluxia to come back, waiting for an explanation. And now..."

Nessa felt something at the pit of her stomach. Guilt, was it?

"That's what happened to me." Roxas mumbled, recalling the days that he 'remembered' as being Hayner, Pence, and Olette's best friend, doing everything with them. All it turned out to be was him being sent to an alternate Twilight Town by DiZ to prevent him from going to find Sora while his memories were being restored.

The girl laughed, "A whole year I've been watching you. Captured by that pathetic excuse for a new Organization, fallen into the darkness, and I laugh. I laugh because you went through all of this and you had no idea for your whole life that you were only a Nobody...!" She laughed louder, but it seemed fake and forced. Nessa should have felt afraid of this girl, but she felt sorrow and pain just from watching her. She wondered if she felt anything without a heart. "But sometimes," she stopped, "I cry. I cry because you're living the life I should have been."

"But, why can't...?"

"Why can't I go with you?" asked the girl, "Somehow I'd rather see you wander lost in the Darkness. Once a Nobody with a heart has her heart tainted, she doesn't come out until her 'Almost Somebody' returns to her, right?" she asked. She received no answer from the girl, "Almost..."

"Sada, that's enough." Marluxia appeared next to her.

"Marluxia!" Roxas gasped. The rest of the group looked around for a minute, their eyes distracted from the scene.

"Where?!" asked Sora.

"He's over here!" Roxas said, "Right... he's probably invisible to you right now."

"Show yourself!" Kairi demanded, receiving nothing in response. She felt utterly stupid after this little scene.

"I'm not through with her!" the girl named Sada hissed. She did not scowl at Nessa, but simply looked at her, defenseless looking.

"Sada, we have to go. Any more contact with this girl might send you two together." Marluxia urged her.

"If you insist on living it," she finished as she turned towards the black portal that Marluxia had recently summoned, "Take better care of it." Sada and Marluxia disappeared inside of the black abyss of a portal, and Nessa looked down at her own feet.

"Take better care of it?" she asked herself, and looked up at Roxas, "I'm never getting out of this place, am I?" she asked.

Roxas sighed. He lived almost a half-life between the Dark realm and Sora's life; not belonging much in either one. "You will." he reassured her, although he wasn't all that sure himself.

"Will what?" asked Peter Pan, getting very irritated by this time.

"Nothing, let's go." Roxas suggested. Sora nodded, and led his way through the ship with Peter by his side.

xxxxx

"I told you, you can't see her. In order to make her a new member of the Organization you can't get near her." Marluxia growled at Sada, who was now crossing her arms and looking upward at the ceiling of the ship.

"Somehow I think I would have rather lived that fake life at Azure Daybreak." she muttered, but laughed slightly to herself, "They think it's been destroyed..."

"Sada, listen to me," he mumbled, and Sada looked up at the man, "They're still after unlocking Kingdom Hearts. They're sure that once they do, all of their problems will be over. They don't know that whether or not the Dark and Light wielders are neutralized, the Heartless will never stop coming and worlds can never stop being unlocked. This is because Kingdom Hearts is a state of mind. It's what you make it."

Sada nodded, "I know, and since there are _heartless_ people in every world, even if they think they've destroyed them, they'll keep coming, yadda yadda yadda. But what does this have to do with my Nobody?"

Marluxia sighed, "Having her in the Organization, we can mess with their minds. They'll break seconds after we do."

Sada sighed, "I wish no misfortune upon my Somebody," she admitted, trying to sound important, "I want my life back."

"And once Kingdom Hearts is unlocked, the worlds will be restored, whether or not they were permanently gone, and Azure Daybreak will be back." he told her.

"I don't get it. I thought we don't want them to unlock Kingdom Hearts." Sada threw out.

"We don't want _them_ unlocking Kingdom Hearts," he smiled darkly, "we want _them_ dead."

Sada laughed only slightly and adjusted her glasses, "Whatever it takes to go back home." She looked out the window of the ship and across the long, raging sea. "Just to go back home."

xxxxx

"Nothing." Sora mumbled as they checked the last room around them. It seemed like each one was swarming with Light and Dark wielders, all of which they tried their hardest to avoid, even though they all seemed like they thought they were fighting them.

"There's still the captain's room left." Peter suggested, determined.

"There? I'm not too sure." Nessa said to herself and Roxas.

"Nessa isn't too sure about going in there." Roxas told them.

"I swear, it sounds like you're talking to an imaginary friend." Kairi laugh, "It's funny. But why does Nessa think that?"

"She says... the captain's 'anything' in a Pirate movie is always off-limits."

"That's Nessa alright." Charity laughed. She tried to smile at where she thought Nessa might be. Missing her by a mile whether or not, Nessa smiled back at her.

"We don't have another choice." Sora stated. He suddenly felt a pressure in his pocket, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" he shouted, and looked down.

There was Mr. Smee, holding the keychain of The Blue Hour. Obviously unable to speak a word, he threw it behind him and begged Sora not to hurt him. Not to Peter's surprise at all, Captain Hook was standing in front of his cabin, smiling evily.

"And now I shall give this to its rightful owner, Marluxia!" he laughed.

"Since when are you in on it with Marluxia?" asked Kairi, surprised at how much she sounded like Sora at that very moment. She was obviously hanging around him too much.

"Since he offered me a brand new ship!" he laughed.

"Wow." Peter said. He shook his head, and then took out his specialty sword, "Bring it on!" he offered to him, only making the captain steamier.

xxxxx

"The power of the Nobodies!" Estelle exclaimed. Axel, in the meantime, only watched from the sidelines, and if a careless Light or Dark wielder ever tried to kill him they would be down in seconds.

"And what a power it is." he murmured, his own fingers flickering with fire as he tried to pass the time.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Estelle, momentarily taking her eyes off of the battle.

"Nothing," Axel sighed, "but don't be surprised if you ever feel empty."

Estelle raised an eyebrow.

"The more you're around Nobodies, the emptier you feel. Simple as that." he murmured, "Unless, of course, it's your Nobody."

Estelle laughed, "I don't have a Nobody. I'm sure everything will be fine."

Axel laughed, "I'm sure. Too bad Sora and the others are going to unseal Kingdom Hearts before either side will win."

"What makes you so sure?" she wondered aloud, summoning a Berserker to go attack a Dark wielder as if she hadn't heard him the first time.

He smirked. "They have Roxas."

"What?" she asked, looking up at him.

He laughed lightly, "Nothing." Bending down and kissing her on the cheek, she stood there frozen as he disappeared into a dark portal.

"Wait!" she shouted angry, flustered, and confused. She just barely made it through the portal before it closed, leaving the Light wielders to get by on their strength instead of her Nobodies. She found herself in an odd house in a world that she had never been to. Standing around her were Axel, three men and two women, and a very old man who was dancing around like an idiot.

"That's Estelle." Axel told a man with blond hair, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall they were by.

"The Light wielder general?" he asked. Axel nodded.

Estelle growled, "So that was to lure me here?" she asked, looking at Axel.

He raised his hands in mock surrender, "Friends with benefits?"

Her face screwed up in anger, "Enemies with nothing!" Her Light keyblade appeared in her hand, and she ran towards Axel with all her strength. Axel refused to ready his chakram, but he did avoid almost every attack thrown at him.

xxxxx

"Peter Pan, surely I will not lose again!" Captain Hook laughed.

"I don't even get how you got out of that alligator!" Pan remarked, blocking yet another one of his jabs.

"It took persuasion," he responded, "I lived in there for a while eating its eggs and living as Ravello the Circus Master. I found my way out and put on my coat and suddenly remembered who I was!" **Author's Note: For once, I'm not making somebody totally out of their mind. Read Peter Pan in Scarlet and you'll figure out what I'm talking about.**

"Then I guess, goodbye, Ravello." he murmured both unnerved and disoriented as he knocked him off of the ship. The keychain practically jumped out of his hands and into Roxas's. Peter Pan totally expected him to arise back up as some Heartless, but surprisingly, he stayed in the water.

"It won't keep him away forever, but it should give us enough time to find Marluxia." Quince mumbled as he dangled his upper body off of the ship, taunting Captain Hook.

Kairi ran up to the door, and tried to open it. "Locked." she muttered.

"Kairi, have you forgotten already?" laughed Sora. He pointed Kingdom Key at the door handle, and the lock popped.

"Oh. Heh. Right." she said, smiling and flipping her hair back as they ran inside.

Unnerved by the sudden interruption, Marluxia and Sada both turned towards the door, although Sada was only visible to Nessa and Roxas.

"Marluxia!" Sora yelled, "Where's Nessa's Almost Somebody?"

"She's gone," Marluxia smiled, "I got rid of her."

"He's lying!" Roxas yelled.

"Shut up, thirteen!" he yelled, still quite used to calling him by his number. With a flick of his wrist, vines from what could have been a tree sprang out from the deck of the ship and wrapped themselves around Roxas's mouth, silencing him.

"Lying?" asked Kairi.

"Take a look around," he said, "she's not here, is she?"

"Well," Sora's face screwed up in concentration, "since she'd be an Almost Somebody, I guess we'd be able to see her."

"Exactly." Marluxia smiled.

Sada muttered darkly to herself, "Sure, Marluxia, tell them I'm destroyed so they'll give up on Nessa and she'll join the Organization. That'll work."

Quince found his fists clenching and his eyes firing up at this. He wasn't one to have a short temper, but this bubblegum-haired individual was really starting to mess with his sanity, "Don't lie to us! Where's Nessa's Almost Somebody?" he asked.

"A bit hot-headed, are we?" he laughed. "Liked Axel, oh, his fate was so tragic..."

"What?" asked Roxas, his hands shaking.

"Axel's gone, too." he laughed. "Dead by the hands of Estelle, no doubt. As I'm sure the rest of that restoration committee is by now."

"Shit!" exclaimed Sora, "We've got to get back to Hollow Bastion."

Meanwhile, Sada and Nessa were having a conversation of their own.

"They're really believing this bull." Sada sighed to herself, more amused than she should be with the shapes she could find on the wood of the ceiling.

"Quince knew better." Nessa argued back to her.

"Not better enough." Sada said sadistically.

"Why are you such an asshole?" Nessa found herself prompted to ask, earning herself wide-eyes from Sada.

"Don't you ever call me an asshole!" Sada exclaimed, who seemed to have a temper as well.

Temper, attitude, slightly weak-looking, this girl was beginning to remind Nessa way too much of herself for her own liking. "Marluxia's the one that's not letting you re... er, unite with me, isn't he?" she asked as calmly as she could.

Sada rubbed her left eye and looked upward, "I'd say so. But I'm not allowed to tell you, am I?" she asked her, but smiled.

"He wants me in the Organization, huh?" she asked.

Sada laughed, "I'm not allowed to say."

Growling, Nessa shouted, "I'm not going back to the Organization!"

Marluxia heard this just as the group left. "I beg to differ." he told her, and quickly sealed the room with just a wave of his arm.

Nessa charged at him, but he dodged easily.

"A Nobody that cannot be seen no matter how much they try is very rare," Marluxia said, "and only occurs when the Nobody was a Nobody from birth, born without a Somebody. We could use you in the Organization."

After Marluxia evaded every attack she threw at him, Nessa decided to hear him out.

"I get nothing out of it. My friends get grief, and..." she thought back to what Riku said to her.

"_If I'm supposed to come back, I will. I can promise you and everyone else that. Just go and find your Almost Somebody. If things are meant to work out, they will. I've learned to trust fate."_

"If I was supposed to be in the Organization, I would have stayed the last time." Her sword now was shaking in her hands, and Marluxia laughed out of amusement.

"I'll have to persuade you by force then." he told her. Just these words sent a chill down her spine. If he was this good at evading moves, and the last time when Quince, Charity and Roxas battled him he just barely lost strength, what would it be like to fight him one-on-one?

She gulped down whatever was in her throat and ran at him with her sword.

xxxxx

The house was a complete mess. Furniture that once nicely decorated the area around them was now sprawled across the floors, photos hanging on the wall had been destroyed and there was blood almost everywhere. It couldn't have possibly been from Axel, but they were worried for the committee.

"Tifa!" Sora shouted as they saw the woman stumbling from behind the wall of the hallway. They ran up with her and helped her to the couch, which Quince took a minute to place upright on its legs.

"Tifa, what happened?" Kairi asked her as she sat down next to her. Putting her hand over her head, there was blood gushing from an open wound.

"Estelle. Light wielders." was all she seemed to be able to manage.

"Here?" asked Sora as his eyes widened to be the size of Dan Gerber's ego, "In Hollow Bastion?" **Author's Note: The Dan Gerber's ego thing was a band camp joke; every time we did stretches before we marched, we would have to make circles with our fists while we held our arms outward. It was always, 'size of a grape, an orange, a watermelon, a pumpkin, Dan Gerber's Ego', and Dan Gerber's Ego was always the biggest. XD Sorry. Done now.**

Tifa nodded.

"Are the others okay?" Roxas asked her calmly.

Slowly, her eyes widened to be almost the size of Dan Gerber's ego, and she struggled to stand, "Cloud..." she murmured.

"We'll check on them," Kairi comforted her, and pushed her back down lightly, "Where are they?" she asked.

"Back room." Tifa told her.

Kairi nodded and ran back with Quince.

Cloud was lying on the bed of the back room, his breathing was staggering and he was sweating hard. Aerith and Leon, who seemed to suffer minimal damage, were kneeling at his bedside and muttering words of comfort at him.

"What happened? Is Cloud okay?" asked Kairi, as Quince reached into his pocket for a potion, himself almost as worried.

"Hanging in there," Aerith told them, "Estelle is very strong." she admitted, but not in the least bit sheepishly, "I want you all to be very careful when you battle her."

Quince threw the potion over Cloud's head, and he regained strength, "How's Tifa?" he asked them. He was still bleeding pretty badly and had a black eye that probably wasn't caused from any Keyblade that Estelle could have had.

"She's fine," Kairi assured her, "a little better than you are now, and they're giving her potions is my guess." she tried to comfort him.

Charity walked in, "Bad news."

xxxxx

After struggling with Marluxia for an hour, Nessa was sure that she was going to break at any moment. Marluxia got closer to her, and kicked her in the stomach hard. Gagging, she looked up at the man, her eyes tearing from the pain.

"Are you ready to join the new Organization?" he asked her.

She coughed, and blood dripped out from the very depths of her throat. Without answering, she somehow managed to break through the barrier of the room.

"Damn!" Marluxia exclaimed as he rushed out of the room.

Sada, however, stayed sitting down in the captain's chair as she had been for the entire battle. She sighed and leaned back, looking at the ceiling.

"Only a matter of time." she said darkly to herself, and holding up her hand. It was a bit upsetting that she could see straight through it, but only a bit. "Maybe I'll re-think this."

xxxxx

"Potions aren't working, we've tried everything," Charity seemed to plea as they all rushed to go see Tifa. She was now breathing heavier and faster, almost as if her heart would explode out of her chest at any given moment.

"She can't be giving into the darkness, can she?" asked Leon.

"That's impossible. It was Estelle that stabbed her." Aerith said.

"That Keyblade," Kairi started, "You don't think it's going to send her to the Realm of Light, do you?" she asked.

"That's where she said she was going." Axel mentioned as he walked into the room, obviously not as full of piss and vinegar as he usually was.

Tifa's eyes were tearing up, "Light." she murmured.

"A realm of light?" asked Sora, "but the door to the light took Riku and myself back home!"

"That was only the door to the light because you wanted it to be," Axel explained to them, "that was simply your way back home from Kairi's want to have you back there."

Something dropped in Sora's stomach as he heard this, and probably in Kairi's as well as she turned to look at Tifa, her face bright red.

"The light's just as dangerous as the dark." Charity decided, earning a nod from Axel.

"Exactly."

Cloud couldn't bear to watch this anymore. "If I can't be your light," he muttered, "I'll have to be your darkness." He leaned over and pressed his lips to hers. Tifa's eyes only grew wider to relax a second after. Her breathing quickly slowed to normal, and she lay on the bed with her eyes closed almost as if she was in a deep sleep.

"Aerith!" Leon called. Aerith ran out of the door, very unlike her, only to be followed by Leon and Kairi, who had experience talking to her before.

"What happened to Estelle?" asked Sora.

Axel smiled, "Well, obviously she'd survive in the realm of Light. But as long as she's in the Light and Parker's not in the Darkness, I'm not too sure we can let her stay in there. Roxas and I should pass over to the realm of Light and take care of that."

"You can do that?" asked Charity.

"We can pass there just as easily as we can pass into the darkness." he told her.

Roxas looked at the rest of them, "Nessa hasn't been here."

"What?!" Charity exclaimed.

"Nessa's not here. I think she's back at Neverland." Roxas said. He was obviously just as worried about her; he had almost become like an older brother to her since she was in the Organization the year before.

"It's decided then. Quince and I will go over to Neverland, and you two go to the realm of Light." Charity said.

"What about me and Kairi?" asked Sora. It was odd; being the one that was being given orders. As if he wasn't quite as dominant in his attitude as he used to be.

"Stay here and take care of Tifa and the rest."

"I'll go with you." Leon said, walking back into the house. He was obviously kicked out of the girls' conversation so they could talk alone. He brandished his sword behind his back and looked very important, although seemed the total opposite for Charity.

"Great," Charity sighed happily. Meanwhile, Roxas and Axel stepped through a portal that looked almost like their darkness portals, but it was white with red swirling through it; much different than what we're used to.

Cloud stood up and looked at the three, "I'm going too." He held his giant weapon in front of him and looked back at Sora.

Sora nodded; he didn't need any more people than Kairi and Aerith, anyway, to take care of Tifa.

"You just healed." Leon told him, but Cloud waved him off quickly. About to leave the house and enter the Gummi ship, Cloud looked at Sora from the doorway. He said words that brought back only too much to Sora as the door closed in front of him.

"Take care of her."

**Author's Note: If you don't remember, that was Riku's last words to Sora when the door to Kingdom Hearts was closing on him. :3 So, the plot thickens. XD Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, and thanks for reading. :**


	11. The More you Change the Less you Feel

CHAPTER XI

The More you Change the Less you Feel

(NOTE)

Finally chapter eleven; sorry for the long wait, school's been... :shudder: So anyway, this story's going to be about the same length as the last, I've decided, so anywhere from fifteen to sixteen chapters. But I've also decided that this is going to be a trilogy; so there will be one more sequel! Enjoy this one anyway!

**Quince: Seldom still doesn't own me.**

**Me: Shaddup.**

**Lollipop:eats Quince:. Yum. Hotness.**

(/NOTE)

Saltwater slapped the faces of Leon, Cloud, Quince and Charity the second they arrived on the boat that floated lazily but brutally in the vast confusion of Neverland. Charity put a warm hand to her face and wiped away the salty water that had splashed on her only seconds before, and looked at Leon, Cloud and Quince.

"Where do we start?" asked Quince, breaking the silence. Obviously neither Cloud nor Leon were very talkative, and Quince never quite knew what to say.

"Captain's quarters," Charity suggested, and without another word from either of the three, they made their way to the large door in the front of the ship. Wrenching it open and running inside to escape the storm that was brewing above them, Charity almost gasped in surprise as she saw someone sitting at the chair.

Then she remembered; Nessa was in the realm of Darkness. Also, there were obvious differences about this girl. "Who are you?" she asked her.

"My name's Sada." the girl responded. The four of them expected it to be very creepy or melancholy, but it sounded oddly normal.

"You're Nessa's Almost Somebody?" asked Quince. This was a great assumption; the two looked too similar to be coincidental. The girl just nodded lazily in response.

"Why can we see you and not her?" Charity asked. Apparently, this was the girl that Nessa had been arguing with; or at least by what Roxas had described. It just looked like an empty spot of the ship at that point.

"I'm not in the realm of Darkness," she said, "and technically, don't exist. I'm just letting you see me." Sada scratched the top of her head.

Charity sighed, but walked closer to the girl. "You know, there's something familiar about you." she said. "But it's not like Nessa."

Something about this made Sada smile; whether it was the fact that she was being told that she was different from Nessa, or that something deep down in Charity remembered her even though she had only lived in an alternate reality with her. "Thanks." she muttered.

"Do you know where Nessa is?" Leon asked her. Sada shrugged.

"She ran off somewhere. Marluxia followed her."

"Marluxia?" asked Charity, instantly destroying a Heartless that appeared at their side. Apparently, they hadn't all left when the battle at Neverland stopped. "What does Marluxia want with her?" she asked, "Does he want her in the Organization?"

Sada smirked, "I guess. He says he's going to be different than Xemnas, but he's a liar." She stood up and stretched her arm, "He's just going to use her like Xemnas used the rest of them, no doubt."

"I wouldn't doubt that either." Leon muttered.

"Wanna come?" asked Charity as they turned to leave.

"I can't fight." Sada shook her head, "Never picked up a weapon in my life."

"Then wait here," Charity told her as they rushed off.

Sada shrugged and sat back down, "Do I even want my Nobody?" she asked. She had felt some kind of emptiness her whole life, but it was probably because it was all a lie. Laughing, she reverted to staring back up at the ceiling and counting the seconds.

"How do we find them?" asked Cloud.

"We don't split up," Charity said immediately, "I always know where that leads." They were practically being destroyed by all of the rain that was pouring on them now, and the wind was rocking the ship so bad that both Quince and Charity seemed to have a problem standing up.

"Listen for the most noise," Quince told them as they jumped down to the lower portion of the ship.

xxxxx

"It's so... white." Roxas said simply. He looked down on his rings and arm bands; black and white. He quickly realized why he enjoyed the black-and-white combination so much; because he _was_. "Makes sense." he said quietly to himself.

"I don't see Estelle." Axel said bluntly and openly, just seconds after they arrived.

"We just got here." Roxas laughed, looking around.

"I think I enjoy the dark realm better." Axel murmured.

"I don't get it." Roxas said, quietly. "There's the dark realm that's in sync with the rest of the world, and then just the darkness that you lose yourself in. Are they two different things?" he asked.

"I think that the Dark Realm is both a world that conjoins with End of the Earth and it conjoins with the other worlds, like an alternate universe. How else is Kingdom Hearts there. But, what about the Light realm...?"

"Maybe that's because... the world _is_ the lightness?"

"I think that's right. And Riku was in the darkness, but Nessa stayed in the dark realm. I wonder if the light realm is any worse."

"Probably just as bad." Roxas looked around, and his eyes came upon a strange sight. At that second, he couldn't believe his eyes. As they narrowed, he finally brought himself to believe what he was seeing.

"Yuffie?"

xxxxx

"What do you do here all the time?" Sora asked Aerith, who was sitting on the couch and watching Tifa.

"I mainly just help out." she told them truthfully, "Cooking, cleaning, little things." Her eyes drifted back to Tifa, and just seeing her made her eyes water slightly. As subtly as she could, she looked at the ground and pretended that there was just something in her eye that she had to rub out before it got annoying.

"Mm." he said lazily, although his stomach was growling. He was obviously hungry.

At that second, Tifa groaned and mustered together all of her energy to prop herself up on the couch where she lay.

"You're awake." Aerith said happily, as if to totally disregard any emotions that she had felt to help her out.

"I am." Tifa smiled weakly. "Thanks. Where're Cloud and Leon?" she asked.

Aerith hesitated, "Neverland."

"What?" asked Tifa, trying to get up. Kairi, however, lightly pushed her back down by her shoulder and scolded her for even trying to get back up.

xxxxx

"This is very creepy." admitted Nessa to herself as she hid out in a cabinet. Marluxia's footsteps were nearing the cabin in which she was hiding, and she froze in both her breath and the small amount of motion she was making.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are..." Marluxia cooed creepily. He had obviously been without sun for some time now.

It was obviously storming out. The boat was rocking back and forth violently, and rain and hail made a sharp noise as it slapped against the fragile wood of the ship. Nessa grabbed onto anything she could to keep from sliding around, although it was probably only there because she let it be. She never imagined that the dark realm would be just a state of mind.

"Nice try." a voice pierced the air as a hand jabbed at her arm and grabbed her. Yanking her out of the cabinet, Nessa realized for the first time since she was lost in thought that she had been found. But what nutcase would look in a cabinet for a Nobody?

"Let go of me!" she demanded, only to be interrupted by the door slamming back open. Marluxia didn't look over and regarded it as a work of the storm, but Quince, Charity, Leon, and Cloud all stepped through.

"What?" asked Cloud, who obviously couldn't see Nessa there; but neither could the rest of them. Marluxia looked as if he was holding an invisible arm.

"Let go of her!" Charity exclaimed, almost exactly mimicking Nessa's command, but only guessing that she was there in the first place.

"Or?" taunted Marluxia. Quince's face screwed up in anger.

"Just fucking let go!" he shouted, and blasted a Gravira at Marluxia, sending him to the ground. It was impossible to say if he had let go of Nessa, but he probably did because his hand no longer seemed 'full'.

Nessa winced as she stood up from losing her balance as Marluxia had fallen to the floor. She looked over at Quince and laughed, "You're starting to act like me, Quincey."

xxxxx

"What are you doing here?" Roxas inquired, staring at the ninja as if she was some kind of illusion in front of them.

"I came here after a Red Shadow crushed my heart." she said. Although they expected a bad expression, Yuffie just gave them her regular smile.

"But we thought that killed you." Axel said. Even he was in too much awe to say or do anything Axel-like, and by Axel-like I mean witty or awesome in general.

Yuffie shrugged, "All of the pieces of my heart put themselves back together. It was weird; but then it came here to the Light realm and I've been here ever since."

"But your body—."

"My body's probably been eaten away by bugs or something by now. Just because the body wears away doesn't mean the heart does." she said happily, "What took you guys so long to come here? And where's everyone else?"

Roxas looked behind him, "They're all getting Nessa or at the house." He sat down for a second to explain every detail of what had happened since the year before.

"That's harsh." Yuffie said. She had been a very good listener; laughed at the parts she needed to and gasped at everything unexpected, "But that explains that creepy woman who's been walking around here."

Axel's eyes widened, "What's she been doing?"

"Just complaining. Maybe she comes here to vent?" Yuffie thought aloud, "No, it can't be. I haven't seen her in here before."

"Do you know which way she er... went?" asked Roxas. He tried to figure out how Yuffie distinguished her way around the place.

"The light realm's infinite. There's no real way. She'll come to you." Yuffie reassured them. They relaxed where they were sitting, but maybe a moment too late. Roxas was knocked to the side, but Axel managed to grab the end of the Light keyblade and spin Estelle around the other way.

"Why are you here?!" she hissed at the two of them.

"That's what we came to find out about you." Axel told her.

Yuffie smiled and shot up, "Finally some action!" She took out her shuriken and smiled at the small sight. "Oh, it's the creepy woman."

Disregarding the comment, Estelle smirked, "Planning." she mumbled, and managed to throw Axel a Blizarra and knock him backwards. "But I was just leaving."

"I don't think so." Roxas argued. Oblivion and Oathkeeper materialized in his hands, and he jabbed at Estelle as hard as he could.

Missing every time, Estelle easily knocked him out of the way, as if it took absolutely no energy out of her whatsoever.

Roxas got up and knocked her out of the way of the portal that she had just created for herself, and wondered at that moment why she didn't just zap away in a flash of light like she usually did. Estelle cursed under her breath, and for once looked vulnerable.

Having no idea what came over him, Axel shouted, "Stop!" to Roxas.

Both of the wielders dumbfounded, they looked over at Axel.

"Maybe this doesn't have to be solved keyblade on keyblade. Light realm is a haven from now on. Got it memorized?" he asked them.

Roxas winced and then looked over at Estelle. "Those are the rules?"

Axel nodded.

"I don't fight fair." Estelle murmured.

"You're going to now." Yuffie interjected, as if she had an idea of what Axel was doing. Threateningly pointing her boomerang at Estelle, she smiled in a 'I'm so much stronger than you' sort of way, and Estelle backed off.

"I get it." she said. Not being able to muster out another word, she looked at Axel. As if her eyes were saying 'thank you' for only the smallest second, she backed up into the portal of red and white and into who knows where.

xxxxx

Marluxia was slowly growing weaker and weaker. Surely only a few more hits would completely destroy him and send him back into the darkness.

"Darkness, dark realm..." he spat as some black substance was flying out of his mouth almost like fog, "no difference if there's nothing to live for."

"Any last words, Marluxia?" asked Charity tauntingly, though very tired herself. She had used at least seven potions in her attempt to destroy the Organization member, and had just barely made it. She certainly wasn't ready for him if he made a surprise move.

"You may return Nessa to her Almost Somebody," he said in a hoarse voice, "but I'm not going anywhere."

Much to all of their surprise, he disappeared quickly into a black portal and left them all in a seemingly empty room.

"Again with the black portals." Cloud sighed to himself and looked around.

"Is she in here?" asked Leon.

"Er... Nessa?" asked Quince. As if he had been touched although there was no sensation, he could feel Nessa's presence next to him. "She's here. Let's get back to Sada."

They soon rejoined Sada back at the Captain's quarters, and she had apparently been entertaining herself by trying on eye patches. "Ever wonder why pirates would only lose one eye?" was the first thing she asked them as they entered the room.

"We got Nessa." Quince said.

"So I've noticed," she lied, because she didn't look over at them once since they entered the room.

"Well?" asked Charity, "Aren't you going to do something interesting and rejoin with her?" she asked her, her eyes almost pleading.

Sada sighed, and stood up quickly. Walking over to Charity, she looked her in the eye, "You really don't remember me, do you?" she asked, unable to believe her own eyes. She had told herself this for a year since she had been pulled away from the alternate Azure Daybreak; none of her friends or family would remember her because her real life was stolen from her Nobody. But still, as fake as it was, she felt a deep connection with Charity not unlike the one that they had felt for each other in the alternate universe, as best friends.

"I..." Charity didn't know what to say. "I don't know how to describe it. It's like I recognize you, but..."

"As Nessa." Sada finished for her.

"No," corrected Charity, "Not as Nessa, as someone else. Like a friend that I was supposed to keep in touch with but never did. It's a horrible thing to say, but that's how I think of you." she shrugged. "I really don't have anything else to say."

"Sada," Nessa said.

"Yeah, Nessa?" Sada asked, turning from the group. They wouldn't be surprised if she was tearing up, because it sure sounded like it.

"Think about it. There is no fake Azure Daybreak. Your reality was the reality to you. The reality I made was my Azure Daybreak. We're not two different people, we're the same." She looked at Sada's back with pleading eyes, begging for a response, "Maybe if we were to join together like we were supposed to, we'd be remembered not as Nessa or Sada, but as one person. The person we were supposed to be."

Sada sighed, and look backwards. Her nose was red and her eyes puffy, and she obviously was not exactly with them at the moment. Still, she nodded. If she wasn't thinking straight enough to think that way, it was probably best if she was reunited with her Nobody.

Nessa smiled and held out a hand, "Ready?" she asked. Sada nodded, and grabbed her hand. The rest of the group stared in astonishment as suddenly Nessa had become visible, but only for a second as she flashed into Sada's body. Charity's eyes suddenly widened; something felt very odd about this.

"Now we've got to go to the End of the World and unlock Kingdom Hearts." the girl smiled. Charity didn't know whether to call her Nessa or Sada, but she definitely knew the voice as familiar and the girl as her best friend.

"Er... what do I call you?" asked Quince, confused.

The girl laughed, "Nessa." she smiled, "Sada agreed that I can control the motions and everything, she just wanted to have a life back."

Charity smiled. "Wow. A Somebody living inside a Nobody."

Nessa smiled back at her, and put up her arm and her hand in a fist. "We live inside each other."

"Got that right." Exie said aloud from inside of Charity. She giggled and put her arm to cross Nessa's. Reunited again.

"We can't go to End of the World just yet," Quince said, interrupting everything, "first we have to find Marluxia and destroy him before he can start up a new Organization, or we'll just have more problems on our hands."

"No," Cloud said in a deep voice, "first we have to go back to Hollow Bastion and eat some of Aerith's cooking. I'm starving."

Cheerfully, they all took a Gummi Ship back to the Hollow Bastion. As Charity sat in the ship and talked to the Nessa that seemed slightly more real in appearance, she couldn't help but to think, _'But what about Riku?'_

xxxxx

"What makes you think I'd ever join forces with you?" Riku asked as he lingered in the darkness in front of the strawberry-haired individual he knew very well to be Marluxia, "After all of that?" he asked.

"I'm not asking." Marluxia admitted.

At this point, Riku wished that Kiur hadn't left him until he found his way back to the light, or at least the Realm of Darkness. Marluxia, having much more experience in the darkness than Riku, was a lot more powerful. With one clean sweep of his scythe, he sent him to the ground.

"You plan on taking me by force?" he asked, spitting.

"Not at all," he told him, "I plan on taking you by persuasion." He walked closer up to him, "Your friend, Charity. She was weak in battle; If the other three hadn't been there I would have killed her in a second. I could just as easily go back and catch her alone and do just that."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Wouldn't I?" This was a daring question to ask. Marluxia; he probably would.

Riku glared over at the man, and looked down. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to fight them," he said, "Not to the death. If you take care of my task correctly, you may not have to worry about that. I want you to fight them until you can take away Blue Hour."

"Why do you want Blue Hour?" he asked. He didn't plan on joining Marluxia without answers.

"Simple. No Blue Hour means that whether or not Kingdom Hearts is unlocked, the Keyblade Wars will continue. Through this, I will be able to gather enough research to tell what makes a heart dark and what makes a heart light, and to find the perfect mix between the two would be to find a perfect heart I can create for myself, and rule over all humanity."

Riku snickered, "You're digging your own grave here." Wanting to smile more, but unable, he looked down at the floor, "I'll do it. On one condition."

"Yes?" asked Marluxia, almost positive he had just made him an offer a second ago.

"You aren't to come in any contact with Charity. You can't touch her. Got it?"

Marluxia smiled evilly, "Deal." **Author's Note: Next chapter, get ready for loopholes. XD**

xxxxx

"Yuffie's alive?!" Leon, Cloud, Tifa, and Aerith all seemed to exclaim at once.

"Yuffeh's alaiiive?!" Cid came in, just a moment too late.

"Technically." Axel told them.

"Her heart, you know, the one that Red Shadow destroyed, repaired itself and now she's living in the Light realm." Roxas told them.

"Can't we get her back?" asked Cloud, determined.

"Not without a body, Sherlock." Axel said.

Aerith shook her head, "We'll think of something. For now, it's best that we rest. A lot happened today and it's obvious that there's a lot in store."

"Definitely." Sora added. This excited him; although a little disappointed that he had missed all of the action and had to stay back and babysit a sick fighter, he was more than excited to get out and kick Marluxia's ass.

"Can we get some food?" Cloud finally bluntly asked to Aerith.

Blushing only slightly, Aerith smiled and said, "Yes, I—..."

She was interrupted only a second later by a dancing man in black tights and a dress that resembled Tinkerbell's much too well. The bearded Merlin was holding a wand out as he pranced into the room and offered to make them all food.

"That's definitely, positively, more than anything not necessary." Sora seemed to plead.

"Nonsense, nonsense!" the man giggled, and pointed out his wand.

"Hot pockets." Nessa said. It was quite random to everyone around her, but she knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Oh dear me, how did that spell go again?" asked the man, batting his eyelashes.

Nessa stood up, "Hockety pockety wockety wack," she sang happily, and Charity looked up at her.

"Maybe you took a little too much of Sada with you." she laughed.

Both Nessa and Sada seemed to giggle at the same time.

xxxxx

Riku couldn't believe what he saw. He had been in the Dark Realm for nearly hours, staying at the odd home that Marluxia had set up for himself and Vexen back at The World that Never Was. Staring at himself in a full-length mirror, he realized how he looked.

He was dawned in almost all black, and what wasn't was red. He had peeled off his blindfold, only so long as to get the Blue Hour key for Marluxia.

"Are you ready?" he asked.

Riku breathed in, "I will be."

**Author's Note: Okay, that's it for this chapter. :3 Again, sorry it took so long, but the next one will be up shortly! We're nearing the climax; just a few chapters left! I realized there's not much left to go, so this might end at chapter XIV, but that all depends. See ya next. :D**


	12. You Played the Role of Superglue

CHAPTER XII

You Played the Role of Superglue

(NOTE)

Wow. I really have no plans for this chapter, so here's to winging it. It will probably be one of those relief chapters, so... please don't hurt me... :dodges flying scorpions: Whoa, scorpions? You guys are finding new torture tactics all the time, eh?

(/NOTE)

"Nobodies?!" Parker exclaimed angrily as he threw his fist against the table. Broden really should have been unnerved by his brother's rage, but he sat on the chair with his feet up on the table, staring at the ceiling nonetheless. "How in the world did she get the powers to control Nobodies?!" he asked, this time his temper rising even higher.

"Beats the hell outta me." Broden admitted, counting the number of specks on his shoes.

"Are you the least bit serious about this?" asked Parker. Broden through his hands up.

"Hey, hey. I didn't choose to go on this side, alright? I think it's random. Up for Monopoly?" he asked. Parker put his hand on his forehead and shook his head furiously.

"I don't think you understand the importance of this. The importance of retrieving Blue Hour and engulfing the worlds." Parker told him.

"You know what? I really kinda don't." Broden admitted, "What's the point? Even if so, it's August 27th. The thirtieth is in three days; and that's when they have to unseal Kingdom Hearts. You think they can make it in three days?"

"I think they can, and that's why you have to be more serious about this!" he shouted.

Broden laughed, "You think they can make it? Maybe that's why the Dark wielders are failing so miserably under your command."

Parker glared at his younger brother, "You really think you can do better?"

Shaking his head, Broden responded, "I don't want to do better. I still don't get the point in all this. What are you going to get if you cover the worlds in darkness?"

"Domination. Simple as that." Parker responded, his knuckles now white from pressure on his fists. "Domination."

"You," started Broden, now the slightest bit serious and standing up, walking towards Parker, "will not have domination. The Heartless will have domination; everything dark in the world will swallow you up. You're creating your own death."

"Liar." Parker hissed.

Broden laughed again, "Think what you want. I'm going out." he said, shutting the door behind him and walking through a portal outside. "I wonder if that Exie girl will be there."

xxxxx

**Author's Note: Warning, things might get a little... suggestive. Well, sorta. I guess we'll see. **Meanwhile, Charity was sleeping soundly in her bed, the moonlight serving as a night light from the darkness of the outside. Hollow Bastion had truly become her home away from home, considering Twilight Town had finally become a real home in her eyes only months into living there.

'_Imagine,' Sada had said aloud, 'If you could give Nobodies a body of their own, and their Heartless a heart.'_

_She never remembered seeing this. But would that make much sense? Nobodies, after all, were not supposed to have hearts. At least, not the ones that pumped blood and kept you alive. But in a sense, did they truly have hearts? It surely seemed as though Roxas and Axel could feel. Exie and Nyx felt friendship, and Number II of the New Organization had felt pride for 'Xylia' when she killed him._

_Wait._

_How did she know that? Since when did she have all of these memories of Nessa?_

_Maybe it was because she was around her, a real Somebody, finally. Nessa looked more real now; like a real girl. Skin imperfect, glasses, a real looking smile. Although, even if she had known that her best friend was a Nobody, she wouldn't have stopped being friends with her. She never did._

"_Who...?" asked Nessa._

_Sada laughed, "It'd be great, wouldn't it?"_

"Exie." came a deep voice. With a groan, Charity opened her eyes. It took her a second to adjust to the darkness that she had woken up to, her eyes blurry from the sleep that had gathered there. Surprised to see Broden on top of her on the bed, she jumped.

His eyes almost seemed fogged over, as if he had passed through a lot just to make it there. He seemed weak and was fumbling, and Charity struggled to get out.

"What the fuck?" asked Charity, trying to wrench her way out of the bed at this point, but Broden was pinning her down, and she couldn't struggle her way out.

"Broden," came Exie's voice as she slid out from Charity and appeared as a whole next to the bed.

"Exie?" asked Broden. He stood up and off of the bed. Exie quickly turned on the light, and caught Broden in a headlock where he was too weak to move out of.

"What the fuck is going on?" asked Charity, her temper rising only to remind her of Nessa at that moment.

"Realm of light, so I wouldn't dark wielders." was Broden's musty reply.

"What?" asked Exie, a bit more temperamental than Charity.

"I passed through the Realm of Light so I wouldn't be caught by Dark wielders." was his response, only to be slapped in the face by Exie.

"Are you crazy?" she asked. She was surprised at her own concern.

"We'll take him to Leon," Charity said to Exie, "He'll know what to do."

"No, no..." Broden mumbled, "I'm done, I'ma help."

"First, we have to get you something. A medication. Something addictive. Obviously you screwed up your head in that realm." Charity groaned as she went to go get some of what Cloud took when he was stressed out. He always took a lot, so she was worried about whether or not there would be much left.

"Exie, let's go away to Destiny Islands and get married and have a lot of sex, and..." this boy was obviously out of his mind. Exie, understanding, pat him on his head.

"You can sleep on the couch, okay?" she offered, bringing him out.

As if on perfect timing, Sora had walked out to take his fifth trip to the bathroom for the night (although not even half done yet) and screamed like a little girl when he saw Broden.

"Dark wielder! Dark wielder!" and he started making noises like a siren.

"No pills left." Charity sighed.

"I think we've found our culprit." Exie pointed out Sora.

Charity sighed heavily, "Sora, again?!" she asked angrily. He was generally level-headed and the unspoken leader, but sometimes he was just too much. Charity quickly led him to his bedroom and locked him inside.

"I have to go to the bathroom!" was Sora's mugged reply.

"Maybe a bunch of Elixers will work." Exie suggested, obviously not thinking due to the lateness. She reached into Leon's pocket of his pants which were suspiciously lying on the floor of the house (with Cloud's next to his) and odd noises were coming from his room, and pulled out three elixers. She quickly threw up about all of the elixers up above his head, and they dissolved right above him.

Suddenly, without warning, Broden got up and started to dance around wildly, "I got the magic stick," he sang as he began to pull off his shirt.

"No, no, no." Exie said quickly, pulling his shirt back on him as if she was dressing a baby, "What the fuck is going on today?" she groaned.

"Besides the fact that we're holding a runaway Dark wielder in a house full of committee members, no less, who just made it through the light realm and is now drunk on elixer while Leon and Cloud are doing something questionable in another room? I dunno." Charity admitted.

Exie found herself chuckle, "So I've noticed. What do we do with him?"

"I'll show you ma-agic, WHAT, WHAT? Ma-a-gic," sang Broden loudly.

"We can't keep him here," Charity winced at the loud and off-key singing of this magic-drunk boy, "maybe we can bring him outside."

"Ready?" asked Exie, "Set? Lift!" Exie was grabbing the boy by the legs and Charity by the shoulders, and they were slowly lifting a boy off outside.

"Charity? Exie?" came a voice as the lights flashed on. They dropped Broden straight to the floor, only to hear him sing 'My Humps' to everyone in sight.

Standing by the entry way was Merlin in a tank top and short-shorts, "Are you lasses snagging some hot sex tonight?" he asked.

"What is wrong with this household?!" Exie screamed. Even Charity couldn't explain everyone's odd behavior that day. **Author's Note: I can. I'm bored. :3**

"Are you?" he asked, crazily wagging his left eyebrow.

"It's not that, he was just, well, we were...! Yes." Charity decided to leave it at with a sigh. Merlin joined Broden in the singing of 'My Humps' as he left back for his room and turned the light off. Charity shuddered.

"Let's get out of here." Exie said, quietly.

xxxxx

Charity woke up with a headache. The sleep was once again gluing her eyes together, and she had to struggle to open them up again. Something happened last night; what was it? She suddenly remembered as she flipped around and saw Exie sleeping on a fold-out bed on the floor;

Broden happened.

"Fuck." Charity groaned; and she thought she had refrained from cursing too often because her whole life seemed to be rated 'e' for everyone, maybe not lately anyway.

"Charity, maybe you can explain this." came Leon's voice as he entered her room. His arms were crossed and he seemed to have had a rough night, "There is a boy with some kind of a hangover sleeping in the garden."

"...Repeat that please?" asked Exie, standing up and dusting off her Organization uniform.

"Boy. In the garden. My elixers are gone." Leon clarified.

"Unh." Charity murmured, standing up.

Leon's eyes suddenly widened as he tried to draw conclusions. "Charity. What about Riku? Have you forgotten him already?"

"Of course I— wait, you think I...?" Charity let out a scream of anger, and walked out of the room in her pajamas as well as out of the house. Broden was staring half-asleep at the bright sun above him from the garden.

"Tell us now that you're not high on elixer or light," Exie told him, as she followed Charity out of the house, "Why are you here? Spy?"

"I'm here to get away from that bullshit and to see you. Simple as that." he said as if it was nothing, and snapped at a butterfly that landed on his shoulder.

"So what you mean to say... is...?" asked Charity.

"I'm gonna help you unlock Kingdom Hearts." he told them, and their eyes slowly widened, "Just to destroy the keyblades. This whole fight has gotten stupid."

Exie found that an odd choice of words as she lifted an eyebrow, "How are we supposed to believe that you switched over?"

"I gave you the piece of Blue Hour, didn't I?" he asked them, "I guess I never really was on the Dark wielders' side to begin with."

"We're going after Marluxia," Charity told him, "we'll give you one chance, and if you're okay, then you can stay with us. Just no more traveling through the Light realm. 'Kay?" she asked.

"Got it." he said, and Exie helped him up.

"We've got ourselves a problem," Cid told them as they walked in. Kairi, Sora, Quince, Nessa, and Roxas were all standing around the computer as Cid frantically clicked something they couldn't recognize.

"Whuhh?" asked Exie, trying to make sure that Broden didn't fall as he made his way through the door.

"The World that Never Was is all hazed over with darkness. Y'all will either have to wait a little while or split up and find Marluxia there." Cid told them.

"We'll split up," Sora suggested, "besides, we can't be sure if Marluxia's even there. Roxas, Axel, and Exie; you all go to The World that Never Was." It felt good for him to be giving orders again.

Suddenly but briefly, Naminé stepped out from Kairi, "I'm going, too. These three don't know how to use potions, so I'll heal them."

"I dunno about you getting hurt." Roxas murmured.

Naminé was either shocked at his concern or lack thereof, but shook her head, "I'm going." she argued.

"Me too," Broden said, "this could be the chance to prove myself." Exie and Charity frantically explained to the others exactly what was going on.

"And another world's back in view that hasn't been in a long time," Cid mentioned in his drawl, which was starting to get the least bit annoying, "Radiant Garden."

Cloud's breathing staggered, "I think I know why." He said this from the other side of the room, but was listening the whole time. Leon was sitting on the couch kitty-corner from him, and glanced over as well.

"Alright. Me, Kairi, Charity, Nessa, and Cloud will go." Sora said.

"I have to go alone." Cloud insisted.

"No, you don't." Sora argued, "I know who's there. We won't get in your way of that, but Marluxia might be there."

Kairi stared at Sora with astonishment; he surely was not the happy-go-lucky boy that she used to know. So why did she still care for him? Probably because she was no longer the happy-go-lucky girl that he once knew either.

"Fine." Cloud said. The four Nobodies and dark wielder set through a dark portal, and the five others set forward towards the Gummi Ship.

xxxxx

"I can't really see much of a thing." Exie admitted as they made it into the world. It was so hazy and dark that almost nothing was visible to the untrained eye, no matter how much training Exie's eyes had gotten beforehand.

"Where d'you think...?" asked Roxas.

"Marluxia is?" Axel finished. He tried not to breathe in too heavily, but looked far forward, "Forward?" he took a stab in the dark.

Because nobody could come up with a better idea, they all ran forward down the road. Surprisingly enough, no buildings or Nobodies flew at them. This was probably due to the fact that if Marluxia was there he wasn't expecting any visitors.

"Where's the Blue Hour?" came a much too familiar voice behind the group.

"Riku?" asked Exie as they flipped around. He was donning black and red clothing, and had an enigmatic look on his face that the rest of them just couldn't seem to figure out or put together to make an expression they knew.

Roxas shifted with his backpack that held the short-reach keyblade. Because he couldn't wield it himself until Nessa was back, he was asked to carry it around, even though he forgot to give it back to her.

"Whaddya mean, Sephiroth's bastard child?" asked Axel. **Author's Note: I just love saying that. It fits so well. xD**

"Marluxia needs the Blue Hour. Hand it over." he demanded out of Roxas.

Roxas immediately felt old feelings boil up in his gut as he was commanded by Riku. "Why the hell would I give it to you?" he asked.

"Why are you acting like this, is the better question." Exie admitted, folding her arms and waiting for an explanation.

The silver-haired boy blinked and cast his eyes so they weren't looking into any pair of eyes the group had held. "I can't tell you that."

"Yes, you can." Broden murmured.

Riku looked over at him, "Replace me already?"

"Riku, are you even out of the darkness?" asked Exie.

"If it's none of you that has it," Riku said quietly, as if he was trying to talk about something secret, "tell me where it is."

"Where's Marluxia?" asked Axel, his fiery red hair standing on end as he turned the tables on Riku. Things had certainly taken a turn for the worst.

"I guess I have no choice." Riku pulled out Way to Dawn and pointed it at the five.

"Riku..." Naminé mumbled, but found herself unable to continue. It wasn't long before she noticed something shimmering at the bottom of his left eye as he charged for the group with his powerful Keyblade.

xxxxx

"Nothing. Totally empty." Charity said angrily as she crossed her arms so hard that she cut off the circulation to them.

"Not totally. Cloud found Sephiroth." Nessa mentioned.

"I guess." She sighed heavily, "I wonder how they're doing at The World that Never Was."

"We should go back and find out, then." Cloud said. He had just come back from obviously a very brutal battle; blood was gushing from everywhere, and the whole group had instinctively given him a potion each. He immediately felt better.

"Are you alright?" asked Kairi.

"I'm fine." he lied. They took the Gummi Ship back to Merlin's house, only to receive shocking news from Cid's computer.

"There's three presences picked up from the radar," he said, "One's from Marluxia; you guys can go over there and help once the fog clears up. The other's from the Nobodies and Broden, nat'rally. The last is from Riku."

Charity's heart skipped a beat.

**Author's Note: Short, I know, I'm sorry. Just a couple more chapters, though, and these next are going to be intense, AKA, not much more, if any, comic relief. Hey; I gave you guys a whole chapter! By the way, the whole suggestiveness with Leon and Cloud, totally Igor Lollipop's idea, not mine. D:**


	13. Those Limbs Hold no Virtue

CHAPTER XIII

Those Limbs Hold No Virtue

(NOTE)

Alright, we're down to the wire. I've decided I want this to be the last chapter in the series because anything else I would have added onto this would have only been a filler to add in more chapters. But don't worry, because after this chapter will be an epilogue, and soon after the last sequel, of which I am still deciding exactly what it should be... heh. :dodges an evaporation dish: D: UGH! Well, at least I got that right on the Chemistry quiz. So, the final disclaimer:

**Charity: Seldom doesn't own anything in this fanfiction except her crappy plot and shitload of Ocs, one of which I am.**

**Me: Shitload, huh? So I should just disown you.**

**Charity: ...Can Igor Lollipop adopt me?!**

**Me: ...By the way, I don't own Quince either. Igor Lollipop owns him because she's **_**special**_

(/NOTE)

"The Heartless ships are everywhere," shouted Sora over the group in the Gummi ship. The enemy missiles were so loud that he was hardly heard over them, "Charity, run the missiles!" Sora commanded.

Without question, Charity nodded and took the ammo controls, brutally beating out the Heartless ships like she had remembered doing so much longer before.

"I'm scared." Kairi shuddered. Herself, Sora, Nessa, Charity, and Quince were off to The World that Never Was to find Broden, Axel, Roxas, and Exie. They were taking an odd amount of time there, and two vital presences just happened to have been in the world; Riku and Marluxia. But why was Riku back from the Darkness?

Thankfully enough, The World that Never Was no longer was shrouded in darkness. Practically jumping out of the Gummi Ship, Charity ran forward, followed closely by Sora while everyone else seemed to lag. "Hurry it up!" she called back to them.

Shortly enough, Charity found herself face-to-face to a battle scene. Axel had been knocked out on the floor, Roxas was breathing heavily on one knee, Naminé, however, was fine, and trying frantically to heal the two from the sidelines. Broden apparently had lost no strength at all in this battle; probably a lot stronger than Exie and Charity's first impressions.

"Broden!" Charity shouted angrily over at the boy, "What happened? Where's Mar..." Charity stopped herself as she looked ahead. "Riku."

As if all of her confidence and strength disappeared as one, she ran towards the boy.

The fact that his clothes had changed and his overall demeanor was different, Charity didn't notice. She just noticed his face. The girl could have been running towards Kiur for all she knew and not have noticed it until she got close.

Quickly, she embraced the boy.

Charity was soft against him; he had to resist all urge to pull her close and hold her tightly in his arms.

Charity, however, looked up at Riku. Tears of either joy or fear of the scene were welling up in her eyes, and she looked confused. "Riku?" she asked.

He nodded. "Charity. You have to get out of here."

"What do you mean? Riku, you're back." Charity laughed.

Riku shook his head, and suddenly became translucent. Charity's arms went straight through him, and the tears that had been building up in her eyes finally escaped their comfort zone and streamed down her face to drip off of her cheek. "You're still in the dark realm."

Riku nodded, "Leave, now. I have to get Blue Hour so you don't get—..."

"What are you talking about?" asked Charity, "We completed Blue Hour, we've got everything, we just have to destroy Marluxia and we can go unlock Kingdom Hearts."

Riku couldn't get himself to look at Charity in the eyes.

"Riku?" she asked.

"Riku, Riku. What did we talk about?" a voice too kind to be real came out of nowhere as Marluxia appeared out of a familiar dark portal, "No talking to them or warning them. I guess Charity will just get hurt."

"What?" asked Riku, "That wasn't part of the agreement, that was a rule. You still can't touch Charity, it's a binding contract."

Charity was utterly confused now; he made a contract with Marluxia?

"I haven't forgotten the contract," he laughed, "_I_ can't touch her." Smirking, in one swift move he became translucent and flew with lightspeed into Riku's body. With one last sharp call from Riku, he, fell to his knee.

Riku was being overwhelmed by another presence in his body; Marluxia was taking him over.

"Riku!" Charity shouted, backing up.

The boy looked up, his eyes an unidentifiable color under how much they were narrowed. Grimacing evilly, he said in Marluxia's voice, "Riku?"

Everyone behind Charity immediately pulled out their weapons.

"I have no fight with you," he spat, "I want the heart of that girl. And to do so, I have to beat her unconscious."

"What the hell do you want with my heart?" Charity asked, her hands shaking. She hated shouting at Riku, even if it wasn't really him.

"Your heart, of all that I've seen in my life, is the strongest. The most powerful; strong enough to wield Savior of Balance, the legend Keyblade." Marluxia smirked.

"You're wrong!" Charity called to him, Savior of Balance appearing in her right hand, "My heart's been weak since the Keyblade War took Riku away from me!"

"Pathetic," Marluxia came as his voice from Riku, shaking his head violently, "letting a boy get in the way of possible domination of the universe of Kingdom Hearts."

"I have no interest in that!" Charity growled, now no longer caring if she hurt Riku's body in the process of destroying Marluxia. Going straight through him as she charged with Savior of Balance, she was surprised when Marluxia had thrown Way to Dawn at her.

Surprised enough, Charity caught Way to Dawn in her hand as it almost hit herself. She could feel her hand bleeding from the pressure of Riku's strength and her lack thereof. Suddenly, she heard a voice in her head.

"Not giving up already, are you?"

It wasn't Exie, it couldn't be. The voice was too low, and it was crystal clear to her, as if she was hearing it with her own ears. "He may have my body, but I will always be able to command Way to Dawn." came Riku's voice.

Charity's eyes widened. "Riku."

The keyblade quickly wrenched away from her, it knocked Charity in the legs and tripped her over. As the Way to Dawn came back on her again, Charity caught the blade once more, biding her time. The wound only ran deeper now and she could feel temporary paralysis all over her.

"Charity," Riku's voice said against her struggles to keep holding onto the blade, "In the wrong hands the Way to Dawn can take the powers of the beholder. My willpower is in the blade; think! Where is it that you need to go?"

Charity growled as tears rolled down her cheeks from the searing pain in her hands.

"Kingdom Hearts!"

In a quick motion, a black portal seemed to swallow them up from the ground as if swallowing the world itself.

The pathway looked like snow in the vast darkness of nothing. To pass on to another life when your heart was taken away, did you have to find this path? Did you have to find it whether you died the 'normal' way or not? The door was so huge, so beautiful. Charity opened her eyes as a sharp pain was thrown across her neck.

Riku's boot was digging her neck slowly into the ground under them. "Give me your heart." he commanded, certainly in Marluxia's voice.

"Get off of her!" Nessa shouted, charging at him with her sword.

"Little Blue Hour wielder." Riku smirked, and Nessa only tripped over Charity as she went straight through Riku.

"Don't call me that!" she spat as she pulled herself and her temper off of the ground.

"That's all you're here for," he cooed, "first you take Sada's life away from her, and now you go against your own birth reason?"

"Right now I'm thinking I was born to kick your ass!" she shouted at him.

"Insolent." he hissed.

"Nessa!" Quince's voice called from behind her. As she turned her head around, she quickly found his lips pressed to hers.

"Quince?" she asked as he pulled away.

"Remember me!" he shouted, running towards Riku.

"As long as you're here!"

Immediately, Maybe Memories clashed quickly with Way to Dawn and threw the both of them back. Stuck in a battle of Keyblade on Keyblade, they were never missing nor were they hitting their target.

"Fight it, Riku!" Charity cried out, her throat hurting her bruised neck as she screamed.

With one swipe, Quince was knocked to the ground by Way to Dawn. As if he fell to the floor in slow motion, Maybe Memories disappeared from his hand and Nessa ran over to catch him in her arms. "Quince..." she cried.

"Riku!" Charity cried out. Nessa was holding Quince tightly right under Riku's nose; One by one the group had already tried to hit Riku and failed; all but Roxas and Axel who were too weak to move anymore. "You have to fight it!" she said inaudibly as she crashed into his arms.

"Ah—!" Marluxia started, but was soon frozen as if caught in a stalemate with himself and Riku.

"This is the last time I let anyone use my body!" Riku's voice called out. At first, Charity thought he was just talking to her from the Keyblade, but Marluxia had put his hands on his head as if fighting something fierce.

As if on cue, a familiar colored silhouette fell out from Riku's body and back first onto the ground. The soul disappeared entirely into the darkness. Riku and Charity didn't even look down as he held her closely.

_Go ahead, tell me you'll leave again._

_You'll just come back running._

_Holding your scarred heart in hand,_

_it's all the same._

"I knew you could fight it, Riku." Charity cried.

"Not without you," Riku told her. Charity could sense some disturbance in his voice, as if his throat was quivering. Could the strong, silent, protective Riku be _crying_? "I'm ready to come out of the darkness." he admitted to Charity.

"How? How...?" she asked.

"I can't go back without Kiur. He's waiting for me on the other side." Riku told her. Finally bringing himself to pull away from her embrace, she could definitely tell that he had, indeed, been crying. His nose was red and his eyes were watery, but he looked away. Walking towards the giant door that he had once risked his life to close, he got ready to step straight through the door itself. Turning to Charity, he smiled, and walked right through.

Nessa was crying as she held Quince. "He's breathing... he's not moving." she sobbed into his chest. "How could I be so stupid?"

"How were you stupid?" asked Kairi, recovering herself from being one of many to knock themselves out just from trying to defeat Marluxia.

"He was there... he was always there. I was too busy thinking about Leander, about Hayner, and I... I..." Nessa couldn't finish her words.

"Nessa." Sora's voice came, "He's gone. We have to leave him."

"He's not dead!" Nessa screamed as she tried to writhe away from Sora's grip on her arms, "He's breathing! He's alive! We can't leave him here, he'll die!"

_And I'll take you for who you are_

_If you take me for everything._

_Do it all over again._

_It's all the same._

"He's in a coma." Naminé thought aloud.

"No!" Nessa cried out as Sora finally was able to wrench her away from the boy.

Charity stood in astonishment as Nessa brought herself back to embrace Quince.

"Nessa, we have to unlock Kingdom Hearts!" she shouted.

"Or what?" two voices seemed to say in unison. Charity's heart skipped a beat as she was sure the rest had while Parker and Estelle appeared onto the scene. Excited that they might be fighting each other instead of them because they both arrived at the same time, her hopes were quickly shot down.

They both brandished their keyblades and pointed them swiftly at Charity, "The Blue Hour wielder is obviously incapable of unlocking Kingdom Hearts," Estelle said.

"So why don't you just hand it over to us?" finished Parker for her.

"Over my dead body!" Charity shouted in a voice unlike her own. She immediately charged at the two of them, even if it meant taking them two on one. As the rest of the group attempted to step up and fight them, mounds of Nobodies and Heartless appeared, and the rest of them were fighting them to stop them from reaching Nessa who had the heart of the Blue Hour wielder, and Quince whose heart was much too weak at the time.

"You're weakening, girl!" Estelle told her, getting a hit in on her rib and she was quickly stabbed in the stomach by the Dark keyblade.

Charity managed to block another jab from Parker and dodge-roll to hit Estelle from behind, but was quickly hit back on the ground by a hit to the legs by Parker.

"Light!" Charity shouted as she pointed her keyblade at Parker.

Although Parker screamed as if he was in a kind of pain, the attack did not last long as Estelle managed to pierce her Keyblade straight through her left leg. Screaming in agony, Charity fell to the floor. Parker turned around as if he had been staring at the sun, and pointed the Dark keyblade at her.

"Any last words?" he asked her.

"Nessa!" Charity cried out. "You have to unlock Kingdom Hearts now! It's the only way!" She just hardly scrambled away from a stab to her already bruised neck.

Nessa, much to everyone's surprise, managed to stand up. Pulling herself together, she abandoned Quince's body which was still lying motionless on the white path of the floor they were standing on. She stood up, and Blue Hour materialized in her hand from whomever it was that was holding it for her.

"We need someone on the other side!" Nessa called over.

"Just trust me!" Charity shouted.

Nessa pointed out Blue Hour; as she did, it was as if she could feel a million different feelings from the giant key; cold and hot, wet and dry.

"Ten seconds 'till Blue Hour ends!" Estelle mentioned loudly as she stared down at a watch on her wrist. "Ten... Nine... Eight..."

It wasn't working. Nothing was coming out of the Keyblade. "Come on!" Nessa shouted.

"...Six... Five... Four..."

As if energy and thrown itself into Nessa's gut, a beam of light started from the Keyblade. "For the sake of balance!" she shouted.

"...Two..."

_Wrong or right;_

_Black or white._

_If I close my eyes,_

_It's all the same._

Click.

"One!" The doors crept open, and much to Sora's surprise, it wasn't light that filled the area, far from it, but neither was it darkness. This was some sight that couldn't be described, but looked all too familiar to Charity, almost like a grey light.

Completely forgetting about her pierced arm, Charity ran over in front of the door and into the balanced light that had introduced itself to the world. Cries of cusses and much more were heard from Estelle and Parker as their keyblades disappeared and they laid defenseless on the white, snowy floor on the path to Kingdom Hearts.

Blue Hour evaporated, and Nessa looked down at her own empty hand.

The group all smiled in unison as flecks of black and white light fell from the top edge of the door, and a familiar silver-haired boy stepped out and smiled at all of them.

"You know," Sora laughed as he showered Charity and Nessa with hugs along with the rest of them, even Axel, "We can't keep Kingdom Hearts open."

"We can't keep it closed, either." Charity said, between laughs, and winked at Sora, "Big mistake." She looked over at the door, and noticed that the grey light kept seeping out, almost as if it was neverending. Putting her left hand to the door, she looked over at the rest of them, "Keep it open a little." she told them.

"Total balance." Nessa finally managed a wider smile. She looked down at Quince, and kneeled before him. "Quince." she muttered.

Riku held up a hand, and Charity put her right hand on his. Their fingers intertwined, and Charity laughed as the last tear rolled down her face. "No more falling into the darkness, even for me. Got it?" she asked between happy sobs.

"Got it." he agreed, and held her tightly.

"Let's get back." Roxas suggested. They looked over at Nessa and Quince.

_In my life,_

_The compromise._

_I close my eyes;_

_It's all the same._

**Author's Note: And there you have it, folks. Epilogue next and then credits; And by the way, the periodic lyrics were that of All the Same by Sick Puppies; I thought it fit. Stay tuned. :3**


	14. Epilogue

CHAPTER XIV:

Epilogue

(NOTE)

Okay, so it's technically not a chapter, but I like roman numerals. No, this isn't optional, you'll need to know all this for the next sequel. It's just kind of what happens after everything. So, enjoy, and the credits will be posted shortly. :3

(/NOTE)

"He's knocked out." Leon had said. Nessa could figure that much out. She twiddled her thumbs while she waited for the rest of the response.

"It doesn't look like he's coming out of it for a long time." Aerith tried to say as calmly as she could to Nessa.

Nessa looked to the ground. "I expected it." She couldn't help but to wonder what hit exactly could have caused him to be knocked out so badly, what hit could have caused all of that damage on her Quince?

_Her _Quince.

What felt so odd about that? She was the one that pushed him away when he tried to get close, and she was the one who was still living in the past of Leander and the possible future of Hayner. How could she not realize what she felt for Quince until the last minute, until the final battle? It didn't make any sense.

It... wasn't fair.

xxxxx

"I'll see you again. I know I will." Charity said, determined to Riku. Riku laughed both at her and with her.

"That's what I like about you. Positive when I can't be." They shared another embrace; this time not rushed by some crazy chipmunks.

"Our paths will cross some day." She nodded, both at Riku and at the rest of the group. Broden, although now weaponless, had been promised by Cloud that he would learn to wield a different one and help out with the restoration committee. Cloud was in a good mood because he had managed to go back and fight Sephiroth one last time, no matter how unsure he was on whether or not he was still out there.

In the meantime, a woman had visited that was wearing mainly blue clothing and had a head of dark brown hair. She was cute, not gorgeous, and Leon obviously had a past with her. As far as Yuffie, nobody knew what would happen yet. They were only happy enough to know that she was still out there somewhere, maybe for her path to cross with theirs.

Roxas had returned to Sora's body, as Naminé had returned to Kairi's. Nobody knew exactly what happened behind the door during the fight, but apparently Riku had said that his darkness and himself had come to an agreement. That was enough of an explanation for all of them.

"They'll never stop going after your heart." Sora told Charity the blunt, honest truth.

"I know." she whispered, sadly.

"Buck up," Sora laughed. Sixteen and still so crazily positive as he patted her on the back.

Sixteen. She had totally forgotten about age. What was so significant about that?

With a final kiss to the lips, Riku and Charity parted, and Charity kissed both Sora and Kairi on the cheek, "See you again!" she called back to them as she stood at the doorway of the Gummi ship with Nessa even as it took off.

"Get back in there!" Cid called to them from the cockpit.

Charity laughed and pulled one of her eyesockets down, sticking out her tongue.

"You're not the only one that's vulnerable!" Riku called up to her.

"I know that, now!"

xxxxx

They hardly had a second to take in the familiar surroundings of Twilight Town before they were knocked to the floor, by what they couldn't tell until they heard laughing voices around them. Odol, Olette, Hayner, and Pence, all of them just showering the two with hugs and welcome.

Something so small.

Curious about how something so small as one Keyblade could affect their lives completely. Leaving their friends and surrogate family to travel and restore balance between the world, losing loved ones to both the darkness in a sense and the darkness behind their own eyelids for only God knew how long.

"Nessa!" Hayner laughed as they both stood up. Meeting eye-to-eye, the two blonds looked at each other and laughed. "You're back!"

"I never really left." she told him, and punched him on the shoulder lightly, "Hayner."

Hugging once more, the two of them were soon tackled down again.

xxxxx

"You made it just in time for the last day of summer break." Pence told the two of them.

"The last day?" Charity said gloomily.

"Bummer." Nessa mumbled, licking her sea-salt ice cream.

The ocean was beautiful as they picked up exactly where they left off when they left.

"And we know it's a little late," Odol scratched the back of his head. He pulled out a box wrapped in a beautiful wrapping paper, and scribbled all over the silvery paper in sharpie was everybody's name and a personal message to them, "But Happy Birthday."

Charity laughed so hard; _that's_ what she had forgotten.

"Trust me, being with you guys again is a present enough." Charity laughed.

"Aw, c'mon, Char, open it!" Pence urged her.

"Well..."

"Pleeeeeease?" asked Olette, giving her a toothy smile.

Charity giggled. "Alright." She tore away the wrapping paper as delicately as she tore away the horrible memories of her past and the last journey, where the darkness and light alike had taken her. As she stared down into what was in the gift, she couldn't believe her eyes.

**Author's Note: So, first person to guess why I didn't say what the gift was will earn a virtual cookie, seeing as how I'm stealing Igor Lollipop's method of persuasion. I hope you all liked this story, and the credits will be up any minute. :D**


	15. Credits

CREDITS

First of all, I want to thank Igor Lollipop, Azul Twilight, Riley Lily Nikita, and Edward Cullen's Girl, the only four that actually reviewed my fanfiction. XDD Especially for Igor Lollipop and Azul Twilight for putting up with my pathetic excuse for a storyline, and Azul's hilarious reviews, as usual. X3 Sorry the twelfth chapter scarred you, Azul-chan!

Now, for the songs that correspond with each title:

1. Here I Am by Bryan Adams

2. Hollywood Fix by The Pink Spiders

3. Broken Man by Boys Like Girls

4. Summer Shudder by AFI

5. Image of the Invisible by Thrice

6. Check Yes, Juliet by We The Kings

7. Broken Hearts, Torn Up Letters, and the Story of a Lonely Girl by Lostprophets

8. Skyway Avenue by We The Kings

9. With Me Tonight by The Used

10. Kimi to Iu Hana [English translations by Asian Kung-Fu Generation

11. Tonight, Tonight by The Smashing Pumpkins

12. Band-Aids by Gym Class Heroes

13. Dance of the Manatee by Fair to Midland

14. None.

I hope you guys enjoyed it, and the final sequel coming shortly!


End file.
